Department for Transport

Speed Limits: Dual Carriageways

Sir Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reason a 40mph speed limit in place on the stretch of dual carriageway of the A1 near Carpenter's Lodge where no visible work was undertaken on or adjacent to the highway or any of the carriageways until several miles further South on 11 July 2022.

Karl McCartney: The temporary 40mph speed limit on this stretch of the A1 is currently in place whilst National Highways carry out a range of carriageway maintenance activities on the A1 between Wothorpe and Wansford. Whilst all work is being carried out during week nights, the temporary speed limit is in place for safety reasons whilst the safety barriers are removed and rebuilt.The works are due to continue until December when all the work is expected to be finished, following which the temporary restrictions will be lifted and the national speed limit reinstated. Please feel free to make contact directly with National Highways who will be happy to answer any detailed questions on this and any other roadworks.

Railways: Bridges

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help limit the impact of flooding on the railway bridge on Crossley Road in Stockport.

Wendy Morton: Network Rail informs me that the railway bridge on Crossley Road has no known flooding records and there have been no flooding-related issues reported.Network Rail does undertake regular examinations and evaluations of its assets. If there is deemed to be a flooding concern then it would undertake the necessary interventions to mitigate the risk – including engaging with the appropriate local highway authority to understand the risk and root cause, and work collaboratively to resolve the issue.Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highways network in their area, including drainage in and around the carriageway. The Act does not set out specific standards of maintenance, as it is for each individual local highway authority to assess which parts of its network need repair and what standards should be applied, based upon their local knowledge and circumstances. Local highway authorities receive funding allocations from the DfT to maintain their local highway network: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-maintenance-funding-allocations/highways-maintenance-and-itb-funding-formula-allocations-2022-to-2025

Airlines: Insolvency

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reason an Airline Insolvency Bill has not yet been brought forward.

Robert Courts: My Department prioritised resourcing critical response work during the pandemic, which meant that a previously envisaged Airline Insolvency Bill was paused. Now that we are looking towards the recovery of the aviation sector, we are taking steps to enhance consumer protections in the event of a company collapse. It is important that any decisions are based on up-to-date evidence that takes into account significant developments since the Airline Insolvency Review’s Final Report was published in March 2019, so we can ensure our solutions are fit for today’s aviation landscape. With that in mind, my Department will consider and deliver on recommendations of the Airline Insolvency Review to ensure passengers are adequately protected and able to get home if their airline fails.

Strategic Risk Group

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on how many occasions he has attended the Strategic Risk Group with representatives of the aviation industry since it was established.

Robert Courts: I chair the weekly Strategic Risk Group, as the Minister for Aviation, which brings together senior executives from across the aviation sector. To date this has met five times and will continue to meet throughout the summer.

Newcastle Station: Commuters

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people who regularly commute to work on trains to and from Newcastle station each year since 2010.

Wendy Morton: The Department for Transport does not collect information on the number of people who regularly commute to work on trains to and from Newcastle station.

Heaton Chapel Station: Disability

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 11 July 2022 to Question 31939 on Heaton Chapel Station: Disability, whether he has made an estimate of the proportion of the £1 million of funding to Transport for Greater Manchester that will be used to make accessibility improvements to stations in Stockport constituency.

Wendy Morton: We have offered Transport for Greater Manchester £1m towards a wider programme of small-scale accessibility improvements across their stations, including Heaton Chapel station. The detailed cost breakdown for each of those projects is a matter for Transport for Greater Manchester.

Midland Main Line: Mobile Phones

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on improving mobile phone coverage on the Midland Main Line.

Wendy Morton: There has been no discussion with the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport with regard to East Midlands Railway’s mobile phone coverage on the Midland Main Line. However, my officials are engaging with DCMS to encourage the importance of good connectivity on a wider scale and ways to improve it.

P&O Ferries: Contracts

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what advice his Department has provided to other Government departments regarding publicly funded contracts with P&O Ferries since 17 March 2022.

Robert Courts: The way 800 loyal and experienced workers were treated by P&O Ferries was shameful and utterly unacceptable. We continue to hold them to account. The Department for Transport has previously conducted a thorough review of ongoing government contracts with P&O Ferries, and one ongoing contract between the Home Office and P&O Ferries was terminated at our request. We cannot rule out the possibility of Departments procuring P&O Ferries’ services through, for instance, internal commercial booking agents for official business on an ad-hoc basis. If any publicly funded ongoing contract were to emerge which has not been identified through this process, then we would take appropriate action.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Coal Fired Power Stations

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answers of 18 May 2022 to Questions 166 and 167 on Coal Fired Power Stations, if he will define the ranges of (a) slightly extending the life of remaining coal-fired power stations and (b) a minimal impact on (i) national and global CO2 emissions and (ii) consumers’ energy bills.

Greg Hands: Agreements recently concluded between the Electricity System Operator and Drax and West Burton coal plant will expire on 31st March 2023. Discussions on Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station are still live, and costs associated with these contracts are confidential while negotiations are ongoing. The impact on consumers’ energy bills is expected to be minimal. Generation units subject to the contracts will only be dispatched if required by the System Operator to manage exceptional energy security risks. The Government is confident of meeting its Carbon Budget emissions obligations, and remains committed to phasing out unabated coal generation in Great Britain by October 2024.

Research: Skilled Workers

Chris Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the ambition in the Life Sciences Vision to develop a highly skilled workforce, what steps he is taking to develop (a) translational research and (b) broader life sciences research talent in the UK.

Greg Hands: The Government is committed to developing Life Sciences research talent as part of its vision to make the UK the leading global hub for Life Sciences. The Medical Research Council (MRC) directs around £85 million each year towards developing research careers, supporting around 1,600 PhD students. Translational research is supported by MRC’s successful translational funding strategy, which seeks to progress innovative discovery science towards clinical utility. In addition, Innovate UK supports the development of translation research skills through the Biomedical Catalyst Accelerator programme, which focusses on priority areas highlighted in the Life Sciences Vision, such as oncology and neurodegeneration.

Energy: Prices

Colleen Fletcher: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of the rise in energy prices on (a) households and (b) businesses in (i) Coventry North East constituency and (ii) Coventry.

Greg Hands: The Government does not hold this data at constituency level. The Government understands that this is worrying time for households and businesses. Ministers and officials continue to engage constructively to further understand and to help mitigate the impacts of high global energy prices. The Government’s priority is to ensure costs are managed and energy supplies maintained.

Manufacturing Industries: Energy

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of rising energy prices on the manufacturing sector.

Greg Hands: The Government recognises this is a worrying time for manufacturing businesses. Ministers and officials continue to engage constructively to further understand and to help mitigate the impacts of high global energy prices. The Government’s priority is to ensure costs are managed and supplies of energy are maintained.

Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre: Finance

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what funding his Department has allocated to the British Geological Survey for the establishment of the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre (CMIC).

Greg Hands: Up to £3.6 million of funding is available for the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre over 3 years.

Drax Power Station: Timber

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has made an estimate of the quantity of wood pellets that will be burnt at Drax in each year up to 2027.

Greg Hands: The Government has not made an estimate of the quantity of wood pellets that will be burnt at Drax, however Drax has a fixed declared net generation capacity of 2,595 MW for biomass and has previously utilised 6-7 million tonnes of biomass pellets per year when operating at capacity. Drax is able to generate electricity using a variety of biomass feedstocks, providing they meet the sustainability criteria set under the Contracts for Difference and Renewable Obligation schemes.

Biofuels

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his Department's timescale is for making an assessment of the quantity of forestry needed to grow biomass for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage in 2050.

Greg Hands: The Government only supports sustainable biomass. The Government will publish a Biomass Strategy this year which will consider the volume of forestry residues from sustainable forestry operations and the use of other sustainable feedstocks for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage.

Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre: Staff

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many full time equivalent staff from his Department were employed in the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre as on 7 July 2022.

Greg Hands: All full-time staff will be employed by the British Geological Survey, which is delivering the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre.

Minerals

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on Government progress towards publishing a UK Critical Minerals Strategy; and whether that strategy will consider the resilience of critical mineral supply chains.

Greg Hands: As my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State said at the BEIS Select Committee in June 2022, the Government is preparing a Critical Minerals Strategy, that will be published soon. Through the Strategy, the Government will mitigate risks and promote a more resilient global supply chain, through diversification, international partnerships and the circular economy

Sodium Hypochlorite: Shortages

Dame Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to help alleviate the shortage of sodium hypochlorite.

Greg Hands: The day-to-day supply of sodium hypochlorite is a commercial matter for industry. The Government works closely with industry to monitor supply and to encourage diverse and resilient supply chains to protect consumers and businesses.

IVF: Leave

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will hold discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of introducing statutory paid leave for women receiving IVF in the context of the physical impacts of the treatment.

Jane Hunt: The Government remains committed to ensuring women, including those undergoing IVF treatment, can participate fairly in the labour market, and that businesses build a supportive workplace environment. BEIS speaks regularly with a range of Government departments about the best ways of achieving this, including through discussions on the Women’s Health Strategy.

Government Office for Tech Transfer

Chris Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to open the Government Office for Technology Transfer; and whether he will include in that Office's remit an objective of promoting closer collaboration between academia and industry to enhance the UK's translation capabilities in life sciences.

Jane Hunt: The Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) will formally launch in Autumn 2022. GOTT will support central government departments and arm’s length bodies to deliver a step change in the management of the social, economic, and financial value of their knowledge assets for the benefit of the UK economy and the UK taxpayer. Sector agnostic, GOTT will serve as an advisor, leader and convener and act as a focal point for those that can enable the asset to reach its potential, including private sector investors, academia and industry.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many people held electronic purchasing cards that allowed them to make purchases against his Department's budget as of 31 March 2022.

Jane Hunt: The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy had 196 people who held electronic purchasing cards that allowed them to make purchases against our Department's budget as of 31 March 2022.

Small Businesses: Government Assistance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions he has had with business representative organisations on developing small business clusters to help support businesses growth.

Jane Hunt: My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I meet regularly with SMEs, Business Representative Organisations (BROs), Trade Associations and others from a range of sectors across the UK. The Government recognises the power of private sector partnerships and business clusters to drive innovation and investment. The Government is investing £100m to pilot three new Innovation Accelerators in Glasgow, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester. These are intended to boost economic growth by investing in R&D strengths, boosting innovation diffusion and maximising the economic impact of existing R&D institutions. The Strength in Places Fund, managed by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), continues to support innovation-led regional growth and enhance local collaborations involving research and innovation.

Northern Ireland Office

Belfast Agreement: European Convention on Human Rights

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of leaving the European Convention on Human Rights on the Belfast Agreement.

Conor Burns: The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement contains safeguards to protect the rights of all sections of the community. The Agreement also requires domestic  incorporation of the ECHR into Northern Ireland law which is enacted through the Human Rights Act 1998.

Department of Health and Social Care

Health: Females

Colleen Fletcher: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce women’s health inequalities in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Antimicrobials: Developing Countries

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the UK 5-year action plan for antimicrobial resistance 2019-2024, whether he has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs on the allocation of funding for (a) clean water, (b) sanitation and (c) hygiene in low and middle income countries to help prevent the spread of infections and the development of antimicrobial resistance.

Maggie Throup: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Health Services and Social Services: Migrant Workers

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has received reports of activities by recruitment agencies supplying workers to the UK health and social care sector from overseas in breach of his Department’s code of practice on the recruitment of such workers.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Midwives

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) total number and (b) full-time equivalent number of midwives worked in the NHS in (i) England and (ii) each region of England in (A) the most recent month for which data is available and (B) the same month in the preceding year.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Cancer: Health Services

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for cancer care in (a) Stockport and (b) England.

James Morris: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Midwives

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the age profile was of the NHS midwifery workforce in (a) England and (b) each region of England in the most recent period for which data is available.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Health Services: Migrant Workers

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Bilateral agreement between the UK and Kenya on healthcare workforce collaboration, published on 11 November 2021, if he will make an assessment of the level of compliance by recruitment agencies with the sections of that agreement relating to their activities.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Midwives

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many midwives there were in the NHS in England in (a) December 2019 and (b) the most recent month for which data is available.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Health Services and Social Services: Migrant Workers

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which countries his Department is in negotiations with on Government-to-government agreements on health and social care workforce recruitment as of 12 July 2022.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Community Nurses and General Practitioners

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it a departmental priority to make an assessment of the potential merits of joined-up care liaison between GPs and district nurses.

James Morris: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Drugs: Reviews

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that all patients have an annual medicines review.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the amount that can be saved from patients having an annual medicines review.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with pharmacists on undertaking annual medicines reviews.

James Morris: Under the Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service, Primary Care Networks are required to use appropriate tools to proactively identify and prioritise patients who would benefit from a structured medication review (SMR).Information on savings from SMR is not held in the format requested. It is estimated that £400 million is spent annually in unnecessary medicines-related harm admissions to hospital and timely application of SMRs to individuals most at risk from problematic polypharmacy will support a reduction in hospital admissions arising from medicines-related harm.Since 2019 the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme has provided funding to PCNs for clinical pharmacists who primarily lead on clinical medication reviews and work as part of a multi-disciplinary group that proactively manage people with complex medication use.

Gender Recognition: Surgery

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of people who sought gender reassignment surgery in the last 12 months; and what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that people seeking that surgery are fully informed of the implications.

James Morris: From 1 May 2021 to 30 April 2022, there were 2,600 referrals in the United Kingdom to a National Health Service commissioned provider of specialised surgical interventions for the alleviation of gender dysphoria. NHS England's service specification stipulates that a referral for surgery can only be made by an NHS-commissioned gender dysphoria clinic, following a formal diagnosis of gender dysphoria. The specification also requires the patient's lead clinician in the specialist gender dysphoria clinic to ensure that patients are aware of the longer-term consequences of the interventions offered to them. The operating surgeon is required to obtain consent for the proposed intervention at a specific pre-operative appointment, to allow an informed process and for the patient to consider any relevant options and alternatives. It is the surgeon’s responsibility to determine that an individual is sufficiently healthy, physically and psychologically, to undergo surgery.

Parkinson's Disease: Health Services

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure trends in the levels of (a) physiotherapists, (b) occupational therapists, (c) dieticians and (e) speech and language therapists are increasing in order to provide Parkinson's care in line with projected increased demand.

James Morris: Individual National Health Service employers are responsible for planning local staffing levels to meet service priorities, including for patients requiring care for Parkinson’s disease.NHS Digital’s workforce statistics show that from March 2010 to March 2022, there has been a 24.6% increase in the number of physiotherapists, a 17.4% increase in the number of occupational therapists, a 41.7% increase in dieticians and a 19.1% increase in speech and language therapists working in the National Health Service.To increase the supply of allied health professionals (AHPs) to the NHS, since September 2020 all eligible students can apply for a non-repayable training grant of a minimum of £5,000 per academic year, with further financial support available for childcare, accommodation and travel costs. There are currently more than 30,000 students in training to become AHPs.

General Practitioners and Health Centres

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government is taking to support the development of new (a) GP facilities and (b) community health centres.

James Morris: NHS England will shortly ask all integrated care systems to undertake an estates infrastructure strategy informed by local population health needs. This will include maximising the current estate to develop a capital investment plan and prioritising resources to move to models of care as set out in ‘Next steps for integrating primary care: Fuller stocktake report’.The Fuller Stocktake outlined the importance of multi-disciplinary teams and ensuring the coordination of Primary Care Networks with local services. It highlighted that estates should facilitate further integration to meet patient needs and provide a positive working environment for staff. This supports previous investment, such as the Estates and Technology Transformation Fund and the community diagnostic centre programme which aim to increase diagnostic capacity in community settings.The majority of general practices operate as independent businesses, which are contracted to the National Health Service. Partners are independent contractors and occupy, as freeholders or leaseholders, suitable premises to deliver general practice services. General practices should work with local commissioners to identify solutions for training and accommodating staff, where required.

HIV Infection: Screening

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that postal HIV tests are equally available across England.

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to make new funding available to ensure that postal HIV testing is equally available across England.

Maggie Throup: The Government has mandated local authorities to commission comprehensive open access sexual health and reproductive health services through the Public Health Grant. We are providing more than £3.4 billion to local authorities to fund essential frontline services, including HIV prevention and testing services. It is for individual local authorities to determine spending priorities based on an assessment of local need and statutory duties.While no new additional funding is currently planned, we have established the national HIV and syphilis self-sampling framework to assist commissioners to provide online access to postal testing. We have also funded HIV Prevention England to deliver health promotion activities, including the annual National HIV Testing week where online access to postal HIV testing in England has been promoted and funded.

Health Services

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to ensure that people who (a) are over the age of 40 and (b) do not regularly access their GP still proactively receive invitations for health checks.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to introduce a national annual health check.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to (a) train and (b) recruit additional staff to undertake scheduled health checks.

Maggie Throup: Local authorities are legally required to offer an NHS Health Check to all eligible 40 to 74 year olds every five years. Delivery guidance emphasises this requirement and quarterly on invitations enables local scrutiny of service provision. The original modelling to inform the NHS Health Check confirmed that offering a check every five years was the most cost-effective scenario. There are currently no plans to change its frequency. Local authorities are responsible for commissioning and training the NHS Health Check workforce. Commissioners have access to the national competency framework to commission any qualified provider to deliver the service.

Alcoholic Drinks: Labelling

Dr Dan Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish a consultation on requiring businesses to provide calorie labelling on alcohol products.

Maggie Throup: The Government has announced its intention to consult on whether to introduce mandatory calorie labelling on prepacked alcohol and alcohol sold in on-trade businesses such as pubs and restaurants. The consultation will be launched in due course.

Alcoholic Drinks: Rehabilitation

Dr Dan Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the policy paper entitled The Government’s Alcohol Strategy, published on 23 March 2012, CM 8336, whether his Department plans to publish a new strategy to help tackle (a) the number of deaths and (b) the cost to society due to harmful alcohol consumption.

Maggie Throup: There are no current plans to publish a new alcohol strategy. However, we continue to address the harms caused by alcohol misuse including through establishing specialist alcohol care teams in hospitals.

Health Professions: Radiology

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure the shortfalls in the clinical radiology workforce as identified in the Royal College of Radiologists’ 2021 clinical radiology workforce census are addressed in the forthcoming 10-Year Cancer Plan.

Maria Caulfield: As of March 2022, there were 5,081 full time equivalent doctors working in the National Health Service in the specialism of clinical radiology. This is an increase of 57.4% since March 2010 and includes doctors in training, specialists and doctors on other contracts.The Department has commissioned Health Education England to review long-term workforce demand and supply and requested NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan. The outcomes will be available in due course. Officials are currently analysing the responses received to the call for evidence to develop the forthcoming 10 Year Cancer Plan. The Plan will set out how we will ensure that the appropriate workforce is in place to support all cancer patients.

Motor Neurone Disease: Research

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help increase the amount of research into motor neurone disease.

James Morris: The Government has committed at least £50 million for research into motor neurone disease (MND) in the next five years. This includes a collaboration with charity funders to deliver a £4.25 million partnership with the MND research community to increase research and accelerate the delivery of new treatments. The National Institute for Health and Care Research welcomes research applications from researchers and has recently launched a highlight notice for MND to invite research proposals.

Radiotherapy: Medical Equipment

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of radiotherapy machines in use that are over the ten-year recommended lifespan; and what his timeframe is for replacing those machines.

James Morris: NHS England and NHS Improvement estimate that as of 31 March 2022, there were approximately 20 linear accelerators (LINACs) aged 10 years or more in routine use in the National Health Service, equating to 7% of the LINAC fleet.The Spending Review in 2021 allocated £12 billion in operational capital for the NHS over the next three years, which includes provision for the replacement of radiotherapy machines, such as LINACs. Integrated care systems will develop multi-year capital plans to replace radiotherapy equipment, therefore we are unable to confirm a specific timetable. These plans will be developed with specialised commissioners, Cancer Alliances and radiotherapy operational delivery networks, based on an assessment of its age, capacity, demand, opportunities to improve access and risks to the service.

Healthy Start Scheme

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many households migrating from Healthy Start vouchers to cards were initially informed that they were ineligible for a card but were subsequently found to be eligible and are therefore owed backdated payments.

Maggie Throup: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Long Covid: Females

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the reasons for which women are found to be more likely to suffer from long covid than men.

James Morris: No formal assessment has been made.

Cannabis: Medical Treatments

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of people who have sought treatment for their condition using medicinal cannabis in the last 12 months.

James Morris: The information requested is not held centrally.

Dementia and Menopause: Research

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to provide additional support for research into potential links between dementia and the menopause.

James Morris: The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including into dementia and the menopause. The NIHR’s School for Primary Care Research has funded an observational study investigating the risks of developing dementia associated with menopausal hormone therapies.

Surgical Mesh Implants

James Daly: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Statute of Limitation of three years will apply to people who are considering approaching NHS Resolution Pathway for medical negligence claims as a result of the IMMDS Review, particularly Transvaginal Mesh Injury.

James Morris: Time limits for personal injury cases are governed by the Limitation Act 1980. The standard period for bringing a personal injury claim is three years from the date on which the cause of action accrued or three years from the injured person’s date of knowledge, if later. Under section 33 of the Act, the court has discretion to extend this period if it considers it would be equitable to do so, having regard to the various factors listed in this section. NHS Resolution will review claims received in the light of the factors listed in section 33 of the Act.

NHS: Dentistry

Tom Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to require dentists to spend 50 per cent of their time working for the NHS for the first five years after they qualify.

James Morris: There are currently no plans to do so. Health Education England’s ‘Advancing Dental Care Review’, published in September 2021, made recommendations to address recruitment, retention and attract newly qualified dentists into the National Health Service. These recommendations will be implemented through the Dental Education Reform Programme.The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement are negotiating with the British Dental Association on reforms to the dental contract to ensure that working in the NHS is more attractive for new dentists.

NHS: Dentistry

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 27 June 2022 to Question 18862, how many registered NHS dentists there were in each year from 2011 to 2021.

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dentists providing NHS services there were in England in each of the last 12 years.

James Morris: The following table shows the number of National Health Service dentists with NHS activity in each year from 2011 to 2021. The information requested for 2021/22 is expected to be published in September 2022.  YearNumber of dentists with NHS activity2010/1122,7992011/1222,9202012/1323,2012013/1423,7232014/1523,9472015/1624,0892016/1724,0072017/1824,3082018/1924,5452019/2024,6842020/2123,733

Dental Services: Contracts

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish correspondence sent by his Department to the British Dental Association on 20 May 2022 on reform of NHS dental contracts.

James Morris: We are unable to provide the information requested as it relates to the formulation of Government policy. An announcement on the outcome of those consultations will made shortly.The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with stakeholders, including the British Dental Association, on improvements to the National Health Service dental system to increase access to NHS dentistry.

Dental Health: Disclosure of Information

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of publishing (a) dentistry and (b) other oral health statistics more frequently for the purpose of (i) analysing oral health and (ii) identifying appropriate interventions.

James Morris: There are no plans to make such an assessment. In England, local authorities are responsible for assessing oral health needs, developing strategies and commissioning oral health improvement programmes for the local population. Dental and other oral health statistics can be used to assess such needs and the Department has published resources to support local authorities with commissioning evidence based oral health improvement programmes.

Protective Clothing: Contracts

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what systems his Department used to record the results of the due diligence checks on suppliers of PPE during the covid-19 outbreak.

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what systems his Department used to record the results of the due diligence checks on suppliers of PPE during the covid-19 outbreak.

Maria Caulfield: The results of due diligence were recorded by several Government departments, including the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defence. In the absence of a single, integrated system, financial due diligence on suppliers was recorded locally using bespoke systems and processes, such as Microsoft Office applications, Atamis, Mendix and Defence Share.

Cancer: Nurses

Jess Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the estimated shortfall of 3000 cancer nurse specialists, according to Macmillan Cancer Support's 2021 statistics, who are trained in providing emotional and psychological support; and what plans he has to tackle that shortfall.

Maria Caulfield: In 2022/23, Health Education England (HEE) is investing an additional £50 million to expand the cancer and diagnostics workforce, including cancer nurse specialists. It is the responsibility of individual employers to ensure that the appropriate staff are recruited, trained and competent to carry out these roles, including in providing emotional and psychological support. HEE is working with stakeholders, including Macmillan Cancer Support, to develop a programme to support nurses working in the cancer care pathway. This includes a career and education capabilities framework.In July 2021, the Department commissioned HEE to update the existing long term strategic framework for the health workforce. This will address long term workforce demand and supply and its impact on the future workforce. The Department has also commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term plan for workforce and its conclusions will be available in due course.

Mental Health: Emergency Services

Greg Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits for mental health of the Gratitude Games.

Maria Caulfield: No specific assessment has been made.

Health Professions: Radiology

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the announcement of 25 April 2022 of an additional £50 million of Government funding in 2022/23 to further expand the cancer and diagnostics workforce, and to the finding set out in the Clinical radiology census report 2021 that there is a 29 per cent. consultant radiologist workforce shortfall, what proportion of that additional funding will be ringfenced for the provision of radiologist training places.

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the announcement of 25 April 2022 of an additional £50 million of Government funding in 2022/23 to further expand the cancer and diagnostics workforce, and to the finding set out in the Clinical oncology census report 2021 that there is a 17 per cent. clinical oncologist workforce shortfall, what proportion of that additional funding will be ringfenced for the provision of oncologist training places.

Maria Caulfield: The additional funding will contribute to the expansion of postgraduate medical training for cancer-related medical professions, such as pathologists and histopathologists, clinical radiologists and oncologists. Individual budgets for each area will be determined in due course through Health Education England’s business planning process.

Health Professions: Radiology

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference Royal College of Radiologists’ 2021 clinical radiology workforce census, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on clinical radiology of the 29 per cent shortfall of clinical radiologists.

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding set out in the Clinical radiology census report 2021 that there is a 28 per cent. shortfall of interventional radiologists.

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding set out in the Clinical oncology census report 2021 that there is a 17 per cent. shortfall of clinical oncologists.

Maria Caulfield: As of March 2022, there were 5,081 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the National Health Service in the specialism of clinical radiology - an increase of 57.4% since March 2010. There were 1,501 FTE doctors in the specialism of clinical oncology or an increase of 46.9% since March 2010. This includes doctors in training, specialists and doctors on other contracts. Data on the number of interventional radiologists is not held centrally.The Department has commissioned Health Education England review the long-term workforce demand and supply. In addition, we have asked NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan. The outcomes will be available in due course. Officials are currently analysing the responses received to the call for evidence to develop the forthcoming 10 Year Cancer Plan. The Plan will set out how we will ensure that the appropriate workforce is in place to support all cancer patients.

Dental Services: Children

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children are waiting for tooth extractions in hospital.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many adults are waiting for tooth extractions in hospital.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how people are waiting for oral surgery by (a) type of procedure and (b) age.

Maria Caulfield: Referral to treatment data shows that as of April 2022, there were 268,464 patients awaiting oral surgery. However, this does not record the type of procedure and while data of the age of the patient is collected, this information has not been centrally validated.

Mental Health: Emergency Services

Holly Lynch: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he received the letter sent by the hon. Member for Halifax and the hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton of 12 May 2022 on the Gratitude Games; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the proposal for the Gratitude Games.

Holly Lynch: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he received the letter from the hon. Member for Halifax and the hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton of 12 May 2022 on the Gratitude Games; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the proposal for the Gratitude Games.

Maria Caulfield: We have received the letters dated 12 May 2022 and I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Officials are currently assessing this proposal and we will respond in due course.

Hikvision: Sanctions

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will extend the departmental ban on Hikvision to include (a) BGI Group and (b) other Chinese state linked companies implicated in abuses against Uyghurs.

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of links between BGI Group and the People's Liberation Army; and if his Department will ban BGI Group in the UK in light of reports of that company's involvement in genetic data harvesting and involvement in abuses against Uyghurs.

Maria Caulfield: The United Kingdom has an established policy to manage modern slavery risks and we continue to take action to limit exposure to human rights and modern slavery abuses in supply chains. Governmental commercial teams are required to undertake due diligence to ensure risks in supply chains are mitigated. Managing risks within existing contracts is the responsibility of those who are party to the contract and decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.There is no specified procurement evaluation criteria in UK legislation or policy related to entities of Chinese origin and to take account of the national origin of companies would be against the principles in UK law related to equal treatment. The Department evaluates bids and if there is sufficient evidence of human rights or modern slavery abuses in any of the supply chains, we take appropriate steps to exclude them from that procurement. Procurement rules include ‘exclusion grounds’ of mandatory grounds, where contracting authorities must exclude and discretionary criteria, where they may exclude. If a bidder is convicted of an offence under section 1, 2 or 4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, there is a mandatory exclusion. However, even if there is no conviction, strong evidence of breaches is likely to be grounds for discretionary exclusion.BGI Genomics is a supplier on the National Microbiology Framework contract, launched in 2021. The mandatory and discretionary exclusion criteria was requested from all suppliers at the time the Framework was tendered. BGI Genomics was awarded a call-off contract from the Framework contract by the UK Health Security Agency in August 2021 which also involved compliance with mandatory and discretionary selection requirements. This call-off contract lapsed on 14 November 2021 and no further contract with BGI has been let.

Department of Health and Social Care: BGI Group

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 28 October 2021 to Question 62745 on Department of Health and Social Care: BGI Group and the contract award National Microbiology Framework - Lot 1: Diagnostic Goods and Services, published by the UK Health Security Agency (HSA), whether his Department has a direct working relationship, including on contractual or commercial terms, with the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) or any of its subsidiaries; and whether his Department has made an assessment of any potential security implications of the relationship between the HSA and the BGI for his Department.

Maria Caulfield: In the previous response of 28 October 2021, we incorrectly stated that neither the Department nor the former Public Health England had any collaborative, commercial or contractual links to the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) or its subsidiaries. However, BGI Genomics were awarded a call-off contract in August 2021. This contract lapsed on 14 November 2021 and no further contract with BGI has been let. We have corrected the record via a Written Ministerial Statement (HCWS795) on 27 April.Through the National Microbiology Framework, there is a transactional relationship with this supplier. No specific security implications were identified in the procurement, other than standard provisions relating to the General Data Protection Regulation and information and digital security, which are provisioned for in the contracts. In the National Microbiology Framework, a procuring body may include additional security requirements as appropriate for that procurement.

Out-patients

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Elective Recovery Plan published on 8 February 2022, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the implementation of NHS England’s Outpatient Transformation Programme pathway guidance across NHS trusts in England.

Maria Caulfield: No assessment has been made.

Ambulance Services: Barnsley

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of the average ambulance waiting times in Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council.

Maria Caulfield: No specific assessment has been made, as ambulance waiting times are collected at regional ambulance trust level.

Out-patients

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the operational planning guidance published on 22 February 2022, what assessment he has made of the performance of NHS Trusts against the target to reduce outpatient follow-ups by a minimum of 25 per cent against 2019-20 activity levels by March 2023.

Maria Caulfield: No specific assessment has been made.

Doctors: Retirement

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average retirement age for NHS England doctors was for each of the last five years.

Maria Caulfield: This information is not collected in the format requested. National Health Service doctors includes hospital doctors and general practitioners (GPs), which are accounted for separately. There are also two types of retirement; age retirements and voluntary early retirements, which have different average retirement ages.The attached table shows the average retirement ages for age retirements and voluntary early retirements for hospital doctors and GPs from the 1995 Section of the NHS Pension Scheme. The 1995 Section has a retirement age of 60 years old. Age retirements are taken at or beyond 60 years old and voluntary early retirements are taken before the age of 60 years old. The table also shows the volume of each type of retirement which demonstrates the proportions age and voluntary early retirements. As an individual may choose to claim their pension for a number of reasons, it is not possible to isolate the impact of a single factor on retirement rates.TABLE (docx, 23.3KB)

Nurses: Recruitment

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the roles the 50,000 Nurses Programme nurses have been recruited into; and how many of those nurses have been recruited into breast cancer nursing roles.

Maria Caulfield: No specific assessment has been made as decisions on the deployment of additional nurses are made locally. This includes information on the specific roles the additional nurses are recruited to, such as breast cancer nursing. As of April 2022, there were more than 29,000 additional nurses working in the National Health Service, compared to September 2019.

Department of Health and Social Care: Protective Clothing

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many units of personal protective equipment owned by his Department is being held (a) overseas and (b) in China as of 27 June 2022.

Maria Caulfield: The Department currently holds 17.7 billion items of personal protective equipment (PPE), of which three billion items are recorded as held in storage in China. There are no current arrangements with other countries to store items of PPE.

Health Professions: Medical Treatments

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of allowing all trained health professionals to conduct (a) assessments and (b) treatments within the NHS.

Maria Caulfield: No specific assessment has been made.

Hospitals: Visits

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS hospitals are not permitting family members to visit patients in hospital as on 7 July 2022.

Maria Caulfield: The information requested is not collected centrally. NHS England’s guidance states that providers should facilitate visits while managing the associated risks. Visiting should be accommodated for at least one hour per day and ideally for longer. Visiting policies should also reflect that COVID-19 is in general circulation. National Health Service trusts and other organisations are responsible for local risk assessments to implement visiting policies.

NHS: Pay

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure adequate levels of pay for NHS staff.

Maria Caulfield: The Government committed to increasing National Health Service workers’ pay this year, in addition to 3% last year when pay was frozen in the public sector.The Government looks to the independent Pay Review Bodies (PRBs) for a pay recommendation for the NHS. The PRBs consist of industry experts and its recommendations are based on an assessment of evidence from a range of stakeholders, including NHS system partners, trades unions and the Government. The recommendations are informed by factors including the cost of living and inflation, recruitment and retention, affordability and value for the taxpayer. The Government will consider these recommendations before responding.

Department of Health and Social Care: Consultants

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department has spent on consultancy fees in each of the last five years.

Maria Caulfield: The information requested is shown in the following table. Fully audited data for 2021/22 will be available later this year. 2020/212019/212018/192017/182016/17£171,613,000£15,203,000£19,829,000£12,402,000£4,485,000 Source: Department of Health and Social Care Annual Report and Accounts

NHS Walk-in Centres: Wakefield

Simon Lightwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on what date his Department agreed to extend the service at King Street NHS walk-in centre beyond September 2022; and if he will provide details of the timescale and process for commissioning the procurement of that service.

Maria Caulfield: The decision to extend the contract at King Street NHS walk-in centre for 12 months from the end of the existing contract in March 2022, was agreed on 11 November 2021. This extension allows a review of urgent services to be completed according to national guidance, including patient engagement. In summer 2022, the proposed model will be taken through initial governance routes with engagement or consultation in autumn 2022. This is dependent on the scale of the change proposed and will be agreed through local Overview and Scrutiny arrangements and with the relevant guidance from NHS England and NHS Improvement. From January to February 2023, any revisions to the proposals will be made, following the consideration of the responses and the governance arrangements will be approved. In March 2023, the public will be informed of the integrated urgent care service offer.

Health Services: York

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an estimate of the number of out of area patients who have used (a) GP, (b) acute hospital and (c) mental health services provided by York NHS.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an estimate of the number of people from outside of Yorkshire who have used the services of the Yorkshire Ambulance Service in the last 12 months.

Maria Caulfield: No specific estimate has been made, as the information requested is not collected centrally.

Protective Clothing: Storage

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any personal protective equipment purchased by his Department is in storage abroad.

Maria Caulfield: The Department is storing three billion items of personal protective equipment in China.

Investigo: Contracts

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the order form number C81123 published by his Department on 1 July for the supply of temporary personnel by Investigo Ltd under framework contract RM6160, whether the contracted amount of work time is 220 hours or 220 days.

Maria Caulfield: The contracted work time under framework contract RM6160 is up to a maximum of 220 days.

Genito-urinary Medicine: Finance

Florence Eshalomi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has allocated additional funding to sexual health services in response to recent cases of monkeypox.

Maggie Throup: While no specific additional funding has been allocated, we are providing more than £3.4 billion to local authorities through the Public Health Grant to invest in essential frontline services, including sexual health services. The UK Health Security Agency (UKSHA) is supporting sexual health services during the outbreak, including the identification and management of infected cases. We are working with commissioners and providers of sexual health services to monitor the impact of monkeypox on these services.

Genito-urinary Medicine: Monkeypox

Florence Eshalomi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of monkeypox on (a) sexual health service capacity and (b) the ability of that service to meet demands in access to testing, treatment and prevention of (i) HIV and (ii) other sexually transmitted infections.

Maggie Throup: No specific assessment has been made. However, the UK Health Security Agency continues to support sexual health services during the monkeypox outbreak.

Monkeypox: Vaccination

Florence Eshalomi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many vaccines are available for pre-exposure to monkeypox as of 12 July 2022; and whether his Department has plans to procure more of those vaccines.

Maggie Throup: As of 12 July 2022, the UK Health Security Agency has purchased approximately 30,000 doses of the smallpox vaccine Imvanex. Vaccines are being offered to gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men considered to be at higher risk of exposure to monkeypox. Several thousand doses have been distributed for use, while remaining doses are retained centrally.We are monitoring demand and remain in discussions with the manufacturer to procure further doses as required.

Mental Health Services: Waiting Lists

Colleen Fletcher: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the average waiting time for mental health treatment in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England.

Gillian Keegan: No specific estimate has been made as there is no universal waiting time standard across all mental health services.The National Health Service Mental Health Dashboard records data where a waiting time standard is in place, including access to psychological therapies; early intervention in psychosis; and children and young people’s eating disorders. This data is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-mental-health-dashboard/In February 2022, NHS England published the outcomes of its consultation on the potential introduction of five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services. We are working with NHS England on the next steps.

Social Services: Migrant Workers

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many employment agencies supply workers to the social care sector in England from overseas as of 12 July 2022; and if he will make an assessment of how many and what proportion of those agencies fully adhere to the Code of practice for the international recruitment of health and social care personnel, published on 25 February 2021.

Gillian Keegan: The information requested is not held centrally.

Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to publish a written update relating to the implementation of the recommendations of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review’s report entitled First Do No Harm (a) in general and (b) before the House rises on 21 July 2022.

James Morris: We committed to publishing an implementation update on the accepted recommendations, which will be available as soon as possible.

Ear Wax: Medical Treatments

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the impact of the Care Quality Commission's decision to require registration of healthcare professionals providing ear wax removal on (a) the associated costs for (i) healthcare professionals and (ii) patients and (b) the absence of such requirements for non-healthcare professionals providing the same procedure.

James Morris: No specific assessment has been made. As the independent regulator of health and social care, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) assesses the quality of regulated activities, as defined in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Ear wax removal is considered to be a regulated activity within the scope of regulation by the CQC where a patient and a listed healthcare professional agree that treatment is required and this is undertaken by such a professional.Where this applies, the provider must register with the CQC and pay a fee for the regulated activity of treatment of disease, disorder or injury. If earwax removal is not carried out by a healthcare professional, it is not considered as regulated activity outside of the CQC’s scope of regulation. Local commissioners are responsible for meeting the health needs of the population and should ensure that there is appropriate access to ear wax removal services, where necessary and clinically appropriate.

Carers: Cost of Living

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to support unpaid carers with the rising cost of living.

Gillian Keegan: The Government provides financial support to unpaid carers through Carer’s Allowance, the carer element of Universal Credit and other benefits. Carers in low-income households will benefit from the means-tested Cost of Living Payment. Those living in the same household as the disabled person for whom they care will benefit from the disability Cost of Living Payment, while families with a pensioner in the household will benefit from the Pensioner Cost of Living Payment.

Mental Health Services: Waiting Lists

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the average waiting time for mental health treatment.

Gillian Keegan: No recent estimate has been made, as data on waiting time standards is not held in the format requested. However, the National Health Service Mental Health Dashboard shows data for mental health services where a waiting time standard is in place, including access to psychological therapies, early intervention in psychosis and children and young people eating disorders and data. This information is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-mental-health-dashboard/In February 2022, NHS England and NHS Improvement published the outcome of a consultation on the potential introduction of five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services. We are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement on the next steps.

Department for Education

Free School Meals: Academic Year

Christina Rees: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to prevent hunger over the school holidays for children who are eligible for free school meals.

Christina Rees: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of inflation on the levels of access to food over the school holidays for children in living in low income families.

Will Quince: Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only. In England, the holiday activities and food programme provides heathy meals, enriching activities, and free childcare places to children from low-income families. This benefits their heath, wellbeing and learning, and contributes to recovery from COVID-19. This is supported by over £200 million funding each year.To support people who need additional welfare help, the government is providing an extra £500 million of local support via the Household Support Fund, which is being extended to March 2023. This brings the total amount provided to £1.5 billion since October 2021. Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula up to October 2022, and a further £79 million from October 2022 to March 2023. Schools are responsible for the provision of school meals and may enter individual contracts with suppliers and caterers to meet this duty.

National Curriculum Tests

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential change in pupils achieving the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing and maths at key stage 2 in the academic year 2021-22.

Will Quince: The department welcomes the increase in reading attainment from 73% in 2019 to 74% in 2022, despite the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, attainment in maths and writing has fallen, with the percentage of children meeting the expected standard in maths being 71% (down eight percentage points from 2019), and a decrease of nine percentage points in writing, down from 78% in 2019 to 69% in 2022. It is vital that the department knows the impact on this cohort of pupils nationally and can give support to schools that need it the most. This is why we went ahead with the full programme of statutory assessments in 2022. Unlike GCSE and A level exams, key stage 2 assessments were not adapted for pupils in 2022, and the expected standards in the assessments remained the same as in 2019. This consistency means assessments can be used to help understand more clearly the impact of the pandemic on pupils and schools, and how this varies between groups of pupils, schools and local authority areas. National level attainment data at key stage 2 will give us an important baseline as we work towards our target of 90% of children leaving primary school at the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by 2030.

Teachers: Pay

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the 2022 teacher pay award for school staff.

Will Quince: The department is considering the pay recommendations from the School Teachers’ Review Body and is working with colleagues across government to publish a response in due course.

National Curriculum Tests

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the recent challenges experienced by schools in accessing key stage 2 SATs results for 2022.

Will Quince: Results for the key stage 2 national curriculum assessments (SATs) were returned to schools last week and the department would like to thank schools for all their hard work to support national curriculum assessments this academic year. The department is aware that some schools experienced challenges accessing their SATs results the morning that they were released due to technical issues with the Primary Assessment Gateway platform. We recognise that this will have been frustrating for schools and we were in constant contact with our delivery partner, Capita, to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. This meant that schools were able to access their results over the course of the day. The department is also aware that schools experienced separate challenges when trying to access the national key stage 2 statistics on the same day, to be able to compare their individual results to the national average. We recognise this will have also been frustrating for schools and we worked quickly to make the national statistics available just over an hour later. The department apologises for the inconvenience and frustration schools have experienced and would like to reassure schools, trusts, and local authorities of the commitment to learning all the necessary lessons from this year to improve the service in future. We will look to engage schools, trusts and local authorities in this work in due course.

Schools: Energy

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of the increase in energy prices on school budgets.

Will Quince: The department is aware that schools are facing cost pressures, especially around energy costs. We pay close attention to the financial health of the sector, and we are constantly considering what further support we can provide schools to reduce their costs.The department also recognises that schools will be tackling other inflationary pressures. However, this should be seen in the wider context of funding for schools. Increases in funding have been frontloaded to rapidly get money to schools, so that in the 2022/23 financial year alone, core schools’ funding will increase by £4 billion compared to the 2021/22 financial year. This includes an additional £1.2 billion for schools in the new schools’ supplementary grant for the 2022/23 financial year, to meet the costs of the Health and Social Care Levy, and wider cost pressures. Overall, there will be a £7 billion cash increase in core schools funding by the 2024/25 financial year, compared to the 2021/22 financial year.Any additional support will sit alongside our range of School Resource Management tools. These help schools get the best value from their resources, to direct funding towards improving outcomes for their pupils. These include recommended deals for energy costs and ancillary services relating to energy. The department is updating and strengthening guidance on a regular basis to inform schools of the market and commercial position, with practical advice on exiting existing and entering new contracts.The Get Help Buying for Schools service will also be able to offer support to schools in switching and entering new contracts. It is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-buying-for-schools. The department knows that every school’s circumstances are different, and where schools are in serious financial difficulty, they should contact their local authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

National Curriculum Tests

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for its policies of the technical difficulties experienced by schools in accessing key stage 2 SATs results in the academic year 2021-22.

Will Quince: The department recognises that some schools experienced issues accessing their SATs results the morning they were released. We realise that this will have been frustrating for schools and we were in constant contact with our delivery partner Capita, to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. This meant that many schools had successfully accessed their results by lunchtime that day. Capita has apologised to school leaders and teachers for the frustration that this caused and has committed to ensuring that this does not happen again. The department is also aware that schools had separate issues accessing the national key stage 2 statistics on the same day, to be able to compare their individual results to the national average. We recognise this will have also been frustrating for schools and we worked quickly to make the national statistics available just over an hour later. While the department does not consider this event to have any implication on return of results policy, the priority now will be to ensure this does not happen in future years.

Schools: Ventilation

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that schools are adequately ventilated.

Will Quince: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the department worked closely with partners, including the UK Health Security Agency, to ensure our policy on ventilation was in line with the latest public health and scientific advice.In the 2021/22 academic year, the department provided over 386,000 CO2 monitors to state-funded education providers, including early years, schools, and further education providers backed by £25 million in government funding. The monitors enable staff to identify areas where ventilation needs to be improved and provide reassurance that existing ventilation measures are working. This helps to balance the need for good ventilation with keeping classrooms warm. Research indicates that the monitors are helping schools to manage ventilation and, in most cases, existing ventilation measures were found to be sufficient.The department has provided air cleaning units to eligible schools. All eligible applications received have now been fulfilled, with over 8,000 air cleaning units delivered. The delivery figures can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/delivery-of-air-cleaning-units. Schools can also purchase air cleaning units at a suitable specification and competitive price directly from suppliers at an online marketplace set up by the department. Further information can be found here: https://s107t01-webapp-v2-01.azurewebsites.net/list/air-cleaning. In 2018, the department published Building Bulletin 101 (BB101), which provides guidance for school design on ventilation, thermal comfort, and indoor air quality. This guidance sets out the World Health Organisation’s air quality guidelines and Air Quality Standards Regulation 2010 for indoor air quality.

Teachers: Training

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of his Department's Statistics on initial teacher training, updated on 21 April 2022; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the progress towards meeting its teacher recruitment targets for the academic year 2021-22.

Will Quince: The number of teachers remains high, with more than 465,000 working in state-funded schools across the country, 24,000 more than in 2010[1]. As set out in the initial teacher training (ITT) census (academic year 2021/22[2]), the percentage of the postgraduate ITT (PGITT) target achieved for all subjects (secondary and primary) was 101%. 136% of the PGITT target was achieved in primary, this target has been exceeded in four of the last five years. Overall, 82% of the PGITT target was achieved in secondary subjects. Department targets, as estimated by the teacher workforce model (TWM), are for 32,600 postgraduate teacher trainees (11,655 primary and 20,945 secondary) to start their ITT in autumn 2022 (including high performance ITT (HPITT) trainees)[3]. As of 20 June 2022, 20,270 candidates have been accepted onto postgraduate courses in England (excluding HPITT): 10,164 primary and 10,106 secondary[4]. Acceptance figures exclude HPITT acceptances, as this data is not published. It is expected that more candidates will be recruited in the final three months of the cycle. Therefore, although acceptance figures provide a better indication of the number of teacher trainees starting training in October 2022, they are not directly comparable to TWM trainee targets. The departments knows there is further to go in some secondary subjects and that teacher recruitment remains challenging. That is why we have put in place a range of measures for trainees in 2021 and 2022, including bursaries worth up to £24,000 and scholarships worth up to £26,000, to encourage talented trainees to apply to train in key subjects such as chemistry, computing, mathematics, and physics. The department reviews the funding we offer for trainee teachers starting ITT each year. In doing this, we take account of historic recruitment, forecast economic conditions, and teacher supply need in each subject. The department continues to invest in attracting the best teachers where they are needed the most, through our teaching marketing campaign and support services for prospective trainees. We are also exploring new ways to recruit trainee teachers in subjects where there are shortages. For example, the department is introducing a new scholarship to attract the most talented language graduates to the profession, and we are piloting a new ITT course designed to support more engineers to teach physics. Performance in teacher recruitment is significantly driven by wider economic conditions, notably the buoyancy of the graduate recruitment market. Teaching must compete against other private, third and public sector careers for high-quality graduate talent. Graduate salaries and jobs are increasing, which has a considerable impact on the competitiveness of the teaching profession. [1] School workforce in England, Reporting Year 2021 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)[2] Initial Teacher Training Census, Academic Year 2021/22 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)[3] Postgraduate initial teacher training targets: 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)[4] Acceptances- up to 20th June 2022 excluding HPITT (sum of recruited and pending conditions), Initial teacher training application statistics for courses starting in the 2022 to 2023 academic year - Apply for teacher training - GOV.UK (apply-for-teacher-training.service.gov.uk)

Schools: Food

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of increases in the cost of food on school budgets.

Will Quince: The department recognises the cost pressures that some schools and suppliers may be facing. We continue to hold regular meetings with other government departments and food industry representatives, covering a variety of issues, including public sector food supplies. Schools fund benefit-related free school meals (FSM) from their core funding which they receive through the school’s block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and is derived from the National Funding Formula (NFF). For the 2022/23 financial year, the funding schools attract through the ‘FSM factor’ in the NFF is increasing to £470 per eligible pupil. In recognition of cost pressures, after the NFF rates were set, the department received additional funding from HM Treasury for core schools funding in the 2022/23 financial year, which we distributed through the schools supplementary grant. As a result of this, core schools funding for mainstream schools is increasing by £2.5 billion in the 2022/23 financial year, compared to last year. The department has also given schools the autonomy to agree individual contracts with school food suppliers and caterers, using their increased core funding.​

National Tutoring Programme: Procurement

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress has been made on the procurement process for the National Tutoring Programme for the 2022-23 academic year.

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the progress made by Randstad on meeting its contractual targets in respect of the (a) academic mentor and (b) tuition partner pillars of the National Tutoring Programme.

Will Quince: The department will shortly announce the outcome of the procurement process, through which we are seeking to appoint up to three delivery partners for the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years.The department will make a final assessment of Randstad's performance against its contractual targets after the contract expires on 31 August.The independent evaluation of NTP in the 2021/22 academic year will be published before the end of 2023.

Asylum: Children in Care

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has plans to bring forward secondary legislation to ensure that children who (a) arrive in the UK without a parent or carer and (b) are entitled to be looked after by local authorities under the Children Act 1989 are (i) provided care and protection as looked after children and (ii) not housed in hotels.

Brendan Clarke-Smith: We have no plans to bring forward secondary legislation. The Home Office has been temporarily accommodating unaccompanied asylum seeking children in hotels on an emergency basis whilst they await a permanent local authority placement. Since February 2022, all local authorities with children’s services in the UK have been directed to participate in the National Transfer Scheme (NTS) with the aim of ensuring that children are moved out of hotel accommodation and into the care of a local authority as quickly as possible. We have seen an increased rate of transfers since directed transfers under the NTS started. The department and the Home Office are working together on plans to exit the hotels accommodating unaccompanied asylum seeking children as soon as possible.

Ukraine: Publications

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to support the Ukrainian Books for Ukrainian Children initiative that seeks to transfer children's books from Ukraine to the UK.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make enquiries with officials in his Department on how his Department might support the Ukrainian Books for Ukrainian Children scheme to transfer children's books from Ukraine to the UK.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has had discussions with her Ukrainian counterpart on the Ukrainian Books for Ukrainian Children scheme.

Will Quince: The department stands with Ukraine and continues to work across government to ensure we are supporting all Ukrainians in the UK to give them the same access to education and childcare as a UK citizen. The scheme referred to is known as the Books Without Borders project. Backed by the First Lady of Ukraine, it is led by the Ukrainian Embassy, Publishers Association and Publishers’ Licensing Services. The purpose is to publish Ukrainian books in the UK which can be freely given to Ukrainian children and young people. Department officials are working closely with all involved to ensure the initiative is as successful as possible.

Special Educational Needs: Absenteeism

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities will be penalised for making autonomous decisions on absence from education based on the specific needs of their child under the provisions in the Schools Bill.

Will Quince: Regular attendance at school is vital for children’s education, wellbeing, and long-term development. School attendance is mandatory. Under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996, parents have a duty to ensure that their child of compulsory age (5-16) receives an efficient full-time education, either by attendance at school or otherwise. The department appreciates that barriers to attendance are wide and complex, particularly for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Addressing these requires strong relationships and close working between families, schools, local authorities, and other relevant local services. This is the intention of the attendance clauses in the Schools Bill. When considering the appropriate action to address absence, schools and local authorities should consider the individual circumstances of each pupil and family, and take the best course of action to support the child’s return to school. The department encourages parents to work with their child’s school and the local authority to discuss the reasons behind their child’s absence. They should agree together an action plan, so that the right support can be put in place to help their child to return to regular and consistent education.

Pupil Exclusions: Travellers

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the factors contributing to the exclusion rates of Gypsy and Traveller pupils.

Will Quince: Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only. The department recognises the issues faced by Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) children and young people, and how schools and others can make a positive difference. We know certain groups of children are more likely to be permanently excluded, although local context means there will be different patterns across the country. It is vital that schools, local authorities, and local partners work together to understand what lies behind local trends and effectively plan and target additional action according to local needs. Our statutory guidance is clear that all schools should consider what extra support might be needed to identify and address the needs of children from groups, including GRT communities, with disproportionately higher rates of exclusion. The department recently undertook a consultation on the revised ‘Behaviour in Schools’ guidance and updated ‘Suspension and Permanent Exclusion’ statutory guidance which closed on 31 March. The response to the consultation and final guidance for schools will be published in due course.

National Implementation Board

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress his Department has made on the establishment of a National Implementation Board in response to the Independent Review of Children's Care; and if his Department will publish details of the (a) composition and (b) membership of that board.

Brendan Clarke-Smith: Work is currently underway to establish the National Implementation Board, which will be composed of people with experience of leading transformational change, as well as people with their own experience of the care system. The department will hold the first meeting and commit to publishing a membership list in due course. We have also committed to publishing a readout from each board, which will be made available online.

Pupils: Exercise

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an estimate of the average number of weekly hours spent on physical activity by (a) girls and (b) boys at (i) primary and (ii) secondary school in each year since 2010.

Brendan Clarke-Smith: The department does not collect data on the average number of weekly hours spent on physical activity by pupils in school. Sport England’s ‘Active Lives Children and Young People Survey’ provides a comprehensive overview of activity levels in children across England aged 5-16 (Years 1 to 11). The latest report focused on the 2020/21 academic year and can be found online at https://activelives.sportengland.org/Result?queryId=71770.

Educational Institutions: Mental Health Services

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many full-time equivalent mental health staff were recruited in education settings in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021 and (d) 2022.

Brendan Clarke-Smith: The department does not collect or hold information on the number of full time equivalent mental health staff recruited by education providers. The department thinks it is important to promote joint approaches between education and health to provide coherent support to children and young people. That is why, through ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health: a green paper’, the department established NHS-funded mental health support teams, made up of education mental health practitioners, to provide early support, overseen by clinicians. More than 2.4 million children and young people now have access to a mental health support team and more teams are on the way, increasing from 287 to over 500 teams by 2024. To support schools and colleges to introduce effective approaches to mental health and wellbeing, the department has committed to offer all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025. Over 8,000 schools and colleges, which includes half of all state-funded secondary schools in England, have taken up the offer so far. Regarding higher education providers, through strategic guidance to the Office for Students, the department asked that it distributes £15 million of funding in the 2022/23 financial year to give additional support for transitions from school/college to university, and through targeting funding to support partnership working with NHS services to provide pathways of care for students.

Universities: Spiking

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent spiking incidents at universities.

Andrea Jenkyns: On 24 May 2022, the former Secretary of State for Education launched a new working group dedicated to tackling the scourge of spiking attacks against university students. This forms part of the wider government mission to tackle violent and sexual crimes, and strengthen victims’ rights. The group brings together vice-chancellors, police, campaigners, and victims to produce plans for practical action to help keep students safe. It will report back before the start of the autumn term.Professor Lisa Roberts, University of Exeter Vice Chancellor, has been appointed to lead the working group and coordinate the higher education sector’s response.Insight and evidence gathered by the working group will be used to inform the government’s report to Parliament on spiking, due to be published in spring 2023.The government has already taken action to reclassify gamma hydroxybutyrate and closely related substances which have been used for drink spiking. It will work with law enforcement and local authorities to tackle spiking incidents, including considering the case for a specific criminal offence for spiking.Many universities have also set up their own initiatives to tackle the issue. The University of Exeter is offering drink safety test strips, and Nottingham Trent University is funding and delivering bystander intervention training to staff in night-time city venues. The new working group will look at these and other solutions being tested on campuses across the country.

Ministry of Justice

Domestic Abuse: Convictions

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were convicted of domestic abuse offences after having being previously convicted of domestic abuse offences in each of the last ten years for which data is available.

Tom Pursglove: The Ministry of Justice does not hold the data requested centrally and information could only be identified by manually searching case records at disproportionate cost. Offences involving domestic abuse can take various forms and are prosecuted under the offence in law that best reflects their nature and circumstances, for example, harassment. These offences can take the form of domestic abuse or non-domestic abuse and data collected centrally from courts does not distinguish between the two.The Government is committed to tackling this abhorrent crime, demonstrated by our landmark Domestic Abuse Act passed last year, bringing in important new protections and support for victims in court and creating new offences such as of non-fatal strangulation and suffocation. Building on the Act, the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan published in March seeks to transform the whole of society’s response in order to prevent offending, support victims and pursue perpetrators, as well as to strengthen the systems processes in place needed to deliver these goals.In May, we published our draft Victims Bill and wider package of measures, to put victims at the heart of the criminal justice system. The Bill will amplify victims’ voices and entitlements, strengthen transparency and the oversight of victims’ treatment by criminal justice agencies, and improve support for victims.

Courts: Cameras

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether restrictions on the use of cameras in court rooms prevents the wearing of body-worn cameras being worn by staff escorting suspects into court.

Miss Sarah Dines: Currently Prisoner Escort and Custody Services staff are not permitted to wear or use Body Worn Cameras (BWVC) in court buildings due to existing legislation (s.41 Criminal Justice Act 1925 and s.9 Contempt of Court Act 1981) that prohibits cameras and recording equipment in court buildings, including BWVC.The Ministry of Justice is committed to progressing work to review and potentially take forward the legislative change to permit the use of BWVC in court buildings as soon as practicable.

Fraud: Prosecutions

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 11 July 2022 to Question 31123 on Criminal Proceedings: Statistics, how many defendants were (a) prosecuted for and (b) convicted of fraud offences at each Crown Court in England and Wales in each year for which data is available since 2011.

Miss Sarah Dines: The Ministry of Justice holds information on the number of defendants prosecuted and convicted for fraud offences, between 2011 and 2021, in England and Wales, by Crown Court.  The data requested has been provided in the attached tables.PQ 34936 Table (xlsx, 34.4KB)

Prisoners

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the most recent available data on the number of prisoners per prison officer in each prison in England and Wales.

Stuart Andrew: The accompanying excel file sets out figures relating to ratio of prisoners to Band 3-5 prison officer by prison (for public sector prisons), as of 31 March 2022.The minimum number of staff on each residential unit required during periods of unlock is determined by ‘Safe, Decent and Secure Operating Levels’ (SDSOLs) which are agreed in each establishment. These vary depending on a number of factors such as design and size of a residential unit, specialist functions or prisoner cohort.PQ 34937 Table (xlsx, 23.4KB)

Bill of Rights Bill

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy to commit the Bill of Rights Bill to a Select Committee following its Second Reading and before consideration in Committee; and if he will make a statement.

Miss Sarah Dines: The Bill of Rights delivers on the Government’s manifesto commitment to ‘update the Human Rights Act... to ensure there is a proper balance between the rights of individuals, our vital national security and effective government’.The Government’s consultation on the Bill ran from 14 December 2021 to 19 April 2022 and received more than 12,800 responses. The Bill received its first reading on 22 June 2022 and the Second Reading will follow when Parliamentary time allows. On 22 June, the Deputy Prime Minister also made an Oral Statement on the Bill to the House. The Bill will be scrutinised fully in Parliamentary debates and will be subject to the usual scrutiny during its passage through the House. We have responded to proposals on the Bill from the Joint Committee on Human Rights. As such, we believe it is unnecessary for the Bill to be committed to a Select Committee.

Prisons: Standards

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Prisons Strategy White Paper, published on 7 December 2021, if he will make it is policy for the new prison level data to be published with information broken down by ethnicity.

Stuart Andrew: We are committed to the publication and monitoring of data on protected characteristics within in the criminal justice system. As set out in the Prisons Strategy White Paper, in December 2021, we are introducing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for prisons, which will drive improvement by measuring progress with annually published performance ratings for each prison. This prison level data will be published in due course.The Ministry of Justice has two statistical publications that include details on ethnicity to demonstrate this commitment. The Offender Management Statistics (OMS) is published on a quarterly basis. This provides regular data on protected characteristics within the prison population. Additionally, the HMPPS Offender Equalities Annual Report is published on an annual basis, includes data on ethnicity within the prison population and covers a larger reporting period.Prisons have also been provided with a monitoring tool which shows the distribution of prisoner protected characteristics across a range of components of prison life. These include prisoners placed on the incentives scheme, as well as adjudications and complaints.

Young Offenders

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he has taken with the relevant stakeholders to develop a method to assess the maturity of offenders entering the justice system up to the age of 21.

Stuart Andrew: Her Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS) has developed a maturity screening tool for young adult men. This tool is available for use with all men aged 18-25 years of age within the prison and probation population. This maturity tool is a screening tool which is designed to identify those with the lowest levels of maturity, establish likely demand for services and interventions and to help practitioners to identify those individuals with lower levels of maturity who are most in need of support. The screening tool came into use in November 2018, however, has not yet been validated for use with female prisoners and work is ongoing to confirm if it can be used.We are also currently working with senior civil servants in DHSC to improve screening for neurodivergent conditions/disorders/differences and Acquired Brain Injury, which are often associated with lower levels of maturity.

Department for International Trade

Export Credit Guarantees

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether all contracts agreed by UK Export Finance for the provision of Export Development Guarantees in 2020-21 and 2021-22 have included commitments from the recipients relating to the creation or protection of prescribed numbers of jobs in the UK.

Andrew Griffith: The eligibility criteria for the Export Development Guarantee (EDG) and other products offered by UK Export Finance are set out on GOV.uk. Provision of an EDG, which is a form of debt financing rather than direct ownership requires evidence of exporting and a UK footprint but does not require specific commitments on job creation. The terms of EDG-backed loans are negotiated with each borrower individually, and are commercially confidential. However, EDG-backed loans will typically contain provisions to ensure that the business receiving support remains substantially in the same form throughout the life of the loan.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Islamic State West Africa Province

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department’s policies of the potential threat to security posed by the Islamic State’s West African Province.

Vicky Ford: Islamic State West Africa (ISWA) have claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in the Lake Chad Basin region in recent months. The UK Government remains concerned about ISWA, not only because of the significant impact of the conflict in North East Nigeria and the wider Lake Chad Basin, but also because ISWA is a leading propaganda outlet for Daesh.The UK Government is supporting Nigeria to respond to the conflict with extremist groups, including ISWA, in the Lake Chad Basin. We are supporting regional stabilisation efforts and efforts to increase interagency cooperation to tackle terrorism and respond to terrorist attacks. We are also delivering training to increase the Government of Nigeria's ability to tackle terrorist financing. In addition, the UK Government is supporting Nigeria to deliver comprehensive and human rights compliant defection, demobilisation, disengagement and deradicalisation and reintegration (4DR) processes, which provide a genuine pathway for members of Violent Extremist Organisations to defect and reintegrate into their communities.

Somalia and South Sudan: Capital Punishment

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has made an estimate of the number of executions that occurred in (a) Somalia and (b) South Sudan in 2021; and what discussions she has had with her counterparts in those countries on the rising numbers of executions.

Vicky Ford: Amnesty International published credible figures in May 2022 that suggest at least 21 executions were carried out in Somalia and 9 in South Sudan during 2021. Our longstanding policy is to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances, as a matter of principle. Somalia and South Sudan are Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) human rights priority countries and we have repeatedly made this position clear to the governments of both countries. In October 2021, we secured a resolution, supported by Somalia, at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), promoting greater protection of human rights. On South Sudan, we helped ensure continued monitoring of the human rights situation through the renewal in March of the mandate for the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan. We also made clear our ongoing concerns at the human rights situation, and proposed actions for both countries, at their respective Universal Periodic Reviews at the HRC this year.

Development Aid

Wendy Chamberlain: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the Global Fund potentially not reaching its seventh replenishment target of raising $18 billion; and what assessment she has made of the impact of that future funding on (a) access to harm reduction services and (b) the UK's international development commitments.

Amanda Milling: Currently no decision has been made on the UK's contribution to the 7th replenishment of the Global Fund. We are reviewing the Global Fund's investment case against the priorities of the UK's International Development Strategy and we encourage all partners to play their part in helping the Global Fund to meet the $18 billion replenishment target. As set out in the International Development Strategy, providing women and girls with the freedom they need to succeed is a priority for the UK. Prevention, including through provision of harm reduction services, is also an important priority for the Global Fund under the new strategy agreed by the Board last year with the full support of the UK.

Myanmar: Sanctions

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she has had with her (a) Japanese and (b) South Korean counterparts on the implementation by those countries of sanctions in respect of the Myanmar military's business interests.

Amanda Milling: Since the coup, the UK has imposed 11 tranches of sanctions targeting the military's leadership, businesses and associates. We regularly engage international partners, including the Republic of Korea and Japan, to share information on UK sanctions designations and the broader situation in Myanmar. It would be inappropriate to speculate on future targets by either ourselves or our partners.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Legal Costs

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much their Department and its associated agencies spent on legal disputes in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.

Amanda Milling: The FCDO does not hold detailed information centrally regarding spend on legal disputes.

Arctic Council

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the future working of the Arctic Council without the participation of Russia.

Amanda Milling: As a State Observer to the Arctic Council, the UK strongly supported the decision of the seven other Arctic States to pause their engagement with the Russian Chairmanship of the Council as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.We will continue to engage with our Arctic State partners and Allies on issues such as climate change, and we stand ready to recommence participation in multilateral cooperation across the Arctic region when appropriate.

Myanmar: Sanctions

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has made representations to her EU, US and Canadian counterparts on implementing aviation fuel sanctions on the Myanmar military.

Amanda Milling: The UK is in regular contact with our partners in the US, Canada and the EU to coordinate on further sanctions targets. Since the coup on 1 February 2021, we have imposed 11 tranches of sanctions targeting the military's leadership, businesses and associates. We remain very concerned by the military's use of indiscriminate airstrikes against civilians, and we are exploring further measures to tackle the military's ability to use air capabilities to target civilians.

Development Aid

Wendy Chamberlain: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the reduction in the percentage of Official Development Assistance allocated to multilateral organisations on the targets set out in the International Development Strategy.

Amanda Milling: The FCDO is rebalancing its ODA investments from multilateral to bilateral channels to ensure money goes on the key priorities set out in the International Development Strategy: investment, women and girls, humanitarian, climate change, nature and global health. The shift will empower the UK to deliver more aid directly to where it is needed. We will maintain a wide range of partnerships with multilateral organisations, and they will remain key partners for achieving our objectives and tackling global challenges that the UK cannot solve alone.

Colombia: Homicide

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the Answer to the Question from the hon. Member for City of Durham on 21 June 2022, Official Report, column 695, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Colombian government’s investigation of the (a) killing of civilians and (b) actions of the military in Alto Remanso in Putumayo on 28 March 2022.

Vicky Ford: The British Government remains concerned for conflict-affected communities that continue to be affected by violence in Colombia. We look to the Colombian authorities to investigate fully reports of human rights violations, and take appropriate action against those found to be responsible for any violations, including members of the Armed forces.Colombia is an Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office Human Rights Priority Country and UK ministers and senior officials regularly raise human rights issues, as well as specific cases of concern, with the Colombian Government. Most recently, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon discussed human rights and the security situation in Colombia in his meeting with President Duque on 12 April. I [Minister Ford] also discussed human rights concerns with Vice-President and Foreign Minister Ramírez on 10 February.

National Bank Trust: Sanctions

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2022 to Question 18944 on National Bank Trust: Sanctions, for what reason the Government has not taken steps to sanction National Bank Trust.

Vicky Ford: We assess that the National Bank Trust is owned by the Central Bank of Russia (CBR). The CBR is subject to a ban on the provision of financial services for the purposes of foreign exchange and asset management.

British Nationals Abroad: Torture

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 July 2022 to Question 24637 on British Nationals Abroad: Torture, what proportion of the 131 open torture cases reviewed at the most recent annual review predated (a) 2021 and (b) 2020.

Amanda Milling: In 2021, the FCDO conducted a review of 131 cases of torture and mistreatment which were open at that time. Of the 131 open cases, 82 were cases opened prior to 2021, of which 49 were cases opened prior to 2020.

British Nationals Abroad: Torture

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 July 2022 to Question 24637 on British Nationals Abroad: Torture, how and by what criteria is a case of alleged torture designated as resolved by her Department; and whether the victim or their family is (a) notified of that change in designation and (b) asked to formally consent to it.

Amanda Milling: The FCDO takes all allegations of torture and mistreatment very seriously. The FCDO records all information about allegations of torture mistreatment reported to us by British nationals, and the action taken in response to those allegations, within individual case files. The decision to close a case is taken based on the individual circumstances of the case. British nationals are kept updated on the actions that the FCDO takes in relation to allegations and actions are taken in consultation with the British national.

British Nationals Abroad: Torture

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 July 2022 to Question 24637 on British Nationals Abroad: Torture, how old was the oldest case reviewed in the most recent annual review.

Amanda Milling: In 2021, the FCDO conducted a review of 131 cases of torture and mistreatment which were open at that time. During the most recent annual review, the oldest case reviewed was opened in 2016.

Developing Countries: Homophobia

David Mundell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Trade on 30 June 2022, Official Report, column 555, what initiatives her Department is developing to provide financial support for ensuring that LGBT+ non-governmental organisations are able to challenge discrimination in countries where same sex relationships are illegal.

Vicky Ford: The UK is committed to championing LGBT+ rights internationally and supporting those who defend them. Ministers and our overseas missions work closely with partners to advance LGBT+ equality, and promote the implementation of new laws and policies that better protect LGBT+ people from violence and discrimination.Since 2018, the UK has committed over £11 million in programmes to support the promotion and protection of LGBT+ rights. On 24 June, the Prime Minister announced a further £2.7 million of UK funding to support LGBT+ grassroots human rights defenders, and advance equality and freedom across the Commonwealth.

Afghanistan: Refugees

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will publish a list of potential routes of safe passage out of Afghanistan.

Vicky Ford: To minimise the risk to those leaving Afghanistan, the FCDO does not publish the details of specific routes. Since the end of Operation Pitting, in August 2021, the UK has helped over 4600 people to leave Afghanistan. The UK is working with international partners, including non-governmental organisations and other countries, to secure safe routes out of Afghanistan and to hold the Taliban to their commitment to allow safe passage.

Ukraine: Médecins Sans Frontières

Dr Alan Whitehead: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department has provided funding to Medecins Sans Frontieres for its work in Ukraine.

Graham Stuart: The UK is not funding Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for their work in Ukraine. MSF has a longstanding policy to rely largely on private donations. More details can be found on their website (https://www.msf.org/reports-and-finances).

Colombia: Politics and Government

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has had discussions with the president-elect of Colombia since 19 June 2022.

Vicky Ford: The Foreign Secretary has not yet had discussions with the president-elect. The Prime Minister wrote to Gustavo Petro last month to congratulate him on his election and our Embassy is in close contact with the president-elect's team. We look forward to working with him after his inauguration on 7 August 2022.

Ministry of Defence

Armed Forces: Pastoral Care

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the law on genuine occupational requirement, whether he has considered the potential merits of providing non-religious as well as religious pastoral support to armed forces personnel.

Leo Docherty: Military Chaplains are professionally qualified to provide pastoral care to everyone, regardless of philosophy or faith background. Service personnel who do not wish to talk to a Chaplain are encouraged to seek support from a variety of alternative sources, which can be facilitated by the Chaplain. This includes their Chain of Command, through the Services' professional social workers, medical staff and welfare staff. Mutual support is also available via the various staff networks, including the Humanist and Non Religious in Defence (HAND) Network.The Department is working to create and sustain an environment where everyone feels able to be authentic; where people feel respected and able to achieve their full potential. We have carefully considered the position expressed by Humanists UK on the provision of non-religious pastoral support for our Armed Forces and have recently concluded a review of this matter. We are currently considering the recommendations of that review and how best we can support all our people.

Armed Forces: Housing

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on how many occasions since 1 January 2022 he received requests from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to discuss the impact of increases in gas and electricity prices on service personnel paying their own utility bills in service family accommodation.

Leo Docherty: There have been no requests to discuss this matter from the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The majority of those residing in Service Family Accommodation (SFA) use private sector energy providers. As such, the gGovernment's Energy Bill Support Scheme is applicable to personnel paying their own utility bills, in common with the general population. Service personnel will have been included in considerations made by the Chancellor on that basis.

Armed Forces: Recruitment

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer of 19 April 2021 to Question 180391, on Armed Forces: Recruitment, how many armed forces recruits, by service branch, have enlisted from each parliamentary constituency since 2010.

Leo Docherty: Information on intake to the Regular Forces by Parliamentary Constituency is included in the Ministry of Defence's Annual Location Statistics (ALS).The latest edition (1 April 2022) of the ALS can be found at the following website, noting that the relevant Tables are 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/location-statistics-for-uk-regular-armed-forces-and-civilians-2022. Figures included in the ALS extend from the 12 months ending 31 March 2015 to the 12 months ending 31 March 2022, and are split by Service. Earlier figures are not available, except for 2013-14 for the Army, which were provided on 19 April 2021 in the answer to Question 180391.

Defence Business Services: Blackpool

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer to Question 153751 on Defence Business Services: Blackpool, on what date the business case for relocating Defence Business Services to Blackpool was considered by the Ministry of Defence Investment Approvals Committee.

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 21 February 2022 to Question 121951 on Defence Business Services: North West, when he plans to announce the results of the Defence Business Services' workplace programme for the North West.

Jeremy Quin: The business case has been considered by the Investment Approvals Committee and is currently going through the remaining approvals processes. I will write to Members for the effected constituencies as soon as this is concluded.

Armed Forces: Food

Chris Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average daily food charge was for armed forces personnel stationed in UK barracks in the latest period for which data is available.

Leo Docherty: The daily food charge for Service personnel undertaking training in Phase 1 and Phase 2 establishments is £5.61.

AWE Aldermaston and AWE Burghfield

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on what date his Department originally planned to complete construction of the Pegasus and MENSA facilities at the Atomic Weapons Establishment; when his Department expects to complete that construction; and if he will make a statement.

Jeremy Quin: The original and current approved in-service dates for Project Mensa and Project Pegasus are as follows: ProjectOriginal In-service Date Approved in 2011Approved In-service DateMENSA20172024PEGASUS2019Material Handling Store - 2025 Manufacture Capability – 2030

Armed Forces: Catering

Chris Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what was the cost of catering services for armed forces personnel who were (a) deployed and (b) undertaking training in the latest period for which data is available.

Jeremy Quin: It is not possible to separate the deployed costs from those undertaking training. The total amount spent on the provision of catering to all serving personnel engaged on duty, including training, in financial year 2021-22 was £57.629 million. In addition, £16.747 million worth of Operational Ration Packs were consumed in that year. These figures are inclusive of VAT.

Department for Work and Pensions

Members: Correspondence

Gerald Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to respond to the enquiry of 24 May 2022 from the hon. Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, reference POSCMP2022/40477.

Guy Opperman: DWP provided a telephone response to the office of Gerald Jones MP on 14 July 2022 in relation to his constituent’s enquiry and a full written response has also been issued today.

Department for Work and Pensions: Legal Costs

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much their Department and its associated agencies spent on legal disputes in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.

Guy Opperman: We have taken “legal dispute” to mean a case where DWP has instructed the litigation team at the Government Legal Department (GLD) to act on its behalf and “associated agencies” to include the arms’ length bodies (ALBs) and agencies included in this list: Departments, agencies and public bodies - GOV.UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). On this basis, the figures that we have been supplied by GLD litigation are calculated from 1st January each year are and are up to 30th June 2022: 2020 £6,271,760 2021 £6,566,573 2022 £3,262,113 These figures are inclusive of; VATBills to ALBs from GLD litigation and to DWP agencies, andCosts awards either against or in favour of DWP, its ALBs or agencies The figures are exclusive of; Expenditure on advisory teams, which may include advice on disputes within the scope of their work, andEmployment advisory work.

Department for Work and Pensions: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people held electronic purchasing cards that allowed them to make purchases against her Department's budget as of 31 March 2022.

Guy Opperman: As of 31 March 2022, there were 251 live Government Procurement Card accounts that could be used to make purchases against the Department’s budget.

Children: Maintenance

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on how many occasions her Department has continued to pay other benefits to people who have had their Child Maintenance Service payments ended as a result of information gained from the Central Information System as of 6 July 2022.

Guy Opperman: The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Department for Work and Pensions: Civil Servants

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of a reduction in civil service job within her Department on (a) customer service and (b) appointment management.

Guy Opperman: The Department for Work & Pensions is committed to providing high quality services and has delivered on challenges without precedent. However, civil service headcount as a whole has increased since June 2016. Returning to pre-pandemic numbers across the whole of the civil service will mean a more effective, innovative, and lean organisation that will deliver affordable, high-quality services. The Department has been considering how we can contribute to this aim, and we are working through the potential impacts that need to be mitigated.

Social Security and Child Support Tribunal: Appeals

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Social Security and Child Support Tribunal cases have taken place each year for the last five years; and how much those cases cost her Department.

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Social Security and Child Support Tribunal cases relating to Universal Credit have taken place each year for the last five years; and how much those cases cost her Department.

Chloe Smith: Information on appeal tribunal volumes in relation to Social Security and Child Support Tribunal cases (SSCS) is available on - Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: January to March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) – Main Tables, SSCS_3. The only DWP staff who attend actual Tribunals are Presenting Officers.The information for the financial years covered by the request for all SSCS tribunals are detailed in the tables below: 2017/182018/192019/202020/212021/22£7.93m£7.16m£6.47m£1.45m£5.77mThe information for the financial years covered by the request for Universal Credit are detailed in the tables below: 2017/182018/192019/202020/212021/22 £0.08m£0.19m£0.15m£0.72m Cost figures are rounded to the nearest £0.1mData Source: ABM The cost figures quoted are estimated DWP level 1 operating costs, including both direct delivery staff and non-staff costs. Non-staff costs are only those costs incurred in local cost centres, relating to direct delivery staff. Costs provided are for Presenting Officers only and excludes Admin Support or Decision Making operational staff dealing with the Appeals processing work. Please note that the data supplied is from the Departmental Activity Based Models. This data is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standards. It should therefore be treated with caution. The Departmental Activity Based staffing models are a snapshot of how many people were identified as undertaking specified activities as assigned by line managers. The data is frequently revised and changes to definitions / benefits / DWP structure effect comparisons over time. It should therefore be treated with caution and must be seen as an indication of cost, rather than the actual cost. Presenting Officer costs are not held for 2017/18 following the introduction of the UC benefit. 2020/21 figures impacted by COVID.

Members: Correspondence

David Linden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work plans to respond to the correspondence of 12 May 2022, sent again by email on 14 June and 27 June 2022, from the hon. Member for Glasgow East, reference DL11977.

Guy Opperman: A reply was sent to the hon. Member by the Director for Disability Services, Decision Making and Working Age on behalf of the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work on 11 July 2022.

Personal Independence Payment: Standards

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment has been made of the Mandatory Reconsideration Clearance Time for Personal Independence Payment new claims.

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has set a target number of days for clearance times for Personal Independence Payment Mandatory Reconsiderations.

Chloe Smith: Mandatory Reconsideration is a critical element of our decision-making process that helps us achieve the aim of making the right decision as early as possible. It offers claimants an opportunity to challenge decisions and provide any additional information which may be relevant to their claim, without the need to appeal. There are no set clearance times for Mandatory Reconsiderations, rather the focus is on making the correct decision in line with legislation and supported by evidence.

Employment: Disability and Health

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Disability employment gap: Government Response to the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s Second Report of Session 2021–22 In-Work Support – Information and Advice, when her Department plans to launch its service to support employers managing health and disability in the workplace.

Chloe Smith: We expect to launch the Information and Advice service into Public Beta testing shortly. It will be named “Support with Employee Health and Disability”.

Employment: Disability and Health

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Disability employment gap: Government Response to the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s Second Report of Session 2021–22 In-Work Support – Information and Advice, what progress her Department has made since it entered private live testing of an early version of a service to support employers managing health and disability in the workplace.

Chloe Smith: A new digital guidance service to help employers support disabled employees and employees with health conditions has been tested with approximately 1600 employers from smaller businesses.We hope to make an early and limited version of the service more widely available shortly.We will continue to develop the service, adding features and content, in response to test findings.

Jobcentres: Staff

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the impact on employment levels of having targets for work coaches.

Julie Marson: Our Jobcentre teams are committed to delivering a quality service to ensure all claimants receive the best possible support to meet their individual circumstances, and there is no target for Work Coaches on the number of people who move into work. Line managers coach their teams to ensure Work Coaches are skilled and empowered to manage their caseloads and are focussed on helping claimants move into or closer to work.

State Retirement Pensions: Females

Gavin Newlands: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many of the leaflets referred to in paragraph 133 of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's publication entitled Women's State Pension age: our findings on the Department for Work and Pensions' communication of changes, HC 444, were printed and distributed in financial years (a) 2004-05, (b) 2005-06, (c) 2006-07 and (d) 2007-08.

Guy Opperman: It is not possible to reply to this question with precision.

Cost of Living: Young People

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the impact of the cost of living crisis on unemployed young people in the UK.

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the impact of the end of the £20 universal credit uplift on young people living independently.

David Rutley: The £20 uplift to Universal Credit was temporary. There was no need to make an assessment when it was withdrawn. The government understands the current cost of living pressures many are facing, particularly young people, and has taken action to support and help families with a total package worth £37 billion in 2022-23. This includes helping all domestic electricity customers in Great Britain to cope with the impact of higher energy bills, with £400 off their bills from October through the expansion of the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS). This is a doubling of the £200 of support announced in February, and there will no longer be any repayments. In addition, as part of the governments targeted response to rising energy bills, the government also introduced the £150 council tax rebate. Over 8 million households across the UK in receipt of eligible means tested benefits will receive a one-off Cost of Living Payment of £650, paid in two instalments from 14th of July.The Government is also providing an additional £500 million to help households bringing total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England, this will take the form of an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m and is administered by Local Authorities. Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.

Personal Independence Payment

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support and advice is offered by her Department to new claimants for Personal Independence Payment when they are waiting for the decision of a mandatory reconsideration.

Chloe Smith: The main support and advice is given at the pre-Mandatory Reconsideration stage. Whether the claimant uses Gov.UK or calls the Department to apply for an MR, they are given advice as to what the process involves, including information about providing evidence. Thereafter the Department’s key responsibility is to ensure that the application is considered without delay. The decision maker may contact the claimant to discuss their dispute and to ensure that they have provided the decision maker with all the material evidence necessary to decide whether there are grounds to change the decision.

Poverty: Children

Kirsten Oswald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to tackle the level of poverty experienced by children living in lone-parent families.

David Rutley: This Government is committed to reducing child poverty and supporting low-income families, and believes work is the best route out of poverty.  With a record 1.3 million vacancies across the UK, our focus is firmly on supporting people to move into and progress in work. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment – particularly where it is full-time – in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for families and children.The latest available data on in-work poverty shows that in 2019/20, children in households where all adults were in work were around six times less likely to be in absolute poverty(before housing costs) than children in a household where nobody works. Compared with 2010, there are nearly 1 million fewer workless households and almost 540,000 fewer children living in workless households in the UK. In 2020/21, there were 200,000 fewer children in absolute poverty before housing costs than in 2009/10. To help parents into work, our Plan for Jobs is providing broad ranging support for all jobseekers with our Sector Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP), Job Entry Targeted Support and Restart scheme. We are also extending the support Jobcentres provide to people in work and on low incomes. Through a staged roll-out, which started in April 2022, around 2.1m low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher-paid work. This is on top of the support we have already provided by increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 per hour and giving nearly 1.7 million families an extra £1,000 a year, on average, through our changes to the Universal Credit taper and work allowances. To further support parents to move into and progress in work, eligible UC claimants can claim back up to 85% of their registered childcare costs each month up to a maximum of £646.35 per month for one child and £1,108.04 per month for two or more children. This is on top of the free childcare offer in England which provides 15 hours a week of free childcare for all 3- and 4-year-olds and disadvantaged 2-year-olds, doubling for working parents of 3- and 4-year-olds to 30 hours a week. Child Maintenance can make a real difference to lone parent households on a low income whether that is through a family-based arrangement (FBA) or the statutory scheme administered by the Child Maintenance Service (CMS). We estimate that receiving parents in separated families received £2.4 billion annually in child maintenance payments in the three financial years ending 2019 to 2021 through both FBAs and payments received through the CMS. As a result, there were around 140,000 fewer children in absolute poverty from low-income households each year on average between 2018/19 to 2020/21 (on an after-housing costs basis).

Job Centres: Aviation

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department began promoting aviation roles and recruitment via job centres and training for jobs coaches.

Julie Marson: The department has been actively promoting opportunities in the aviation sector for some years, most notably following the collapse of airlines such as Monarch, Flybe and Thomas Cook and the reopening of the sector after the Covid 19 pandemic. We work closely with local airports and in partnership with Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority to provide bespoke support, sharing expertise with Work Coaches to ensure they understand recruitment practices in the sector.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Birds of Prey: Conservation

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 24 March 2022 to Question 141136 on Birds of Prey: Conservation, whether his Department has taken recent steps to work with the police to identify cases of white-tailed eagles that have been deliberately killed.

Steve Double: Enforcement of wildlife offences is an operational matter for the police and it is not for the Government to comment on individual police investigations. However, where any protected birds are killed illegally the full force of the law should apply to any proven perpetrators of the crime. We have significant sanctions for this type of wildlife crime in place which includes an unlimited fine and/or a six-month custodial sentence. Defra officials have been in regular contact with the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) with regard to two fatal poisonings of white-tailed eagles in the south of England. The NWCU monitors and gathers intelligence on wildlife crime and aids police forces in their investigations when required. The Government takes all wildlife crime seriously. To address concerns about the illegal killing of birds of prey, senior government and enforcement officers have identified raptor persecution as a national wildlife crime priority. Defra continues to be fully involved with the police-led national Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group and Natural England continues to work closely with wildlife crime officers. This year, Defra has also more than doubled its funding of NWCU from £165,000 per year to over £1.2 million over the next three years to target wildlife crime priorities including raptor persecution.

Drinking Water: South East

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the likelihood of London and the South East running out of drinking water as a result of over-stressed or polluted water supplies; and whether his Department has a contingency plan in the event of that occurrence.

Steve Double: There is no current risk of London and the South East having no access to drinking water. The Environment Agency's National Framework for Water Resources, published in March 2020, sets out the strategic water needs for England up to 2050. In the South East, action is being taken to provide around an extra 1,765 million litres of water per day by 2050 to address future pressures on drinking water supplies. The pressures include the impacts of climate change, population growth, replacing unsustainable abstractions to improve the environment, and making water supplies more resilient to droughts. The Government's National Infrastructure Strategy set a requirement for water companies to increase the drought resilience of public water supplies to withstand up to one in 500 year drought events. To achieve this, the Government expects a twin track approach with action to reduce water demand, supported by the proposed Environment Act 2021 water demand targets, and action to develop new supply infrastructure such as reservoirs. Statutory Water Resources Management Plans set out how water companies will continue to meet their duties of providing secure water supplies, over at least a 25 year period. All water companies will consult on new Water Resources Management Plans at the end of 2022.

Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the number of cattle that were slaughtered for the purpose of eradicating bovine tuberculosis in each financial year since 2019-20.

Steve Double: The number of cattle slaughtered for bovine tuberculosis control purposes is published on gov.uk and can be found at:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bovine-tb. The number of cattle slaughtered in England from the 2019/2020 financial year onwards is as follows: Financial yearNumber of cattle slaughtered2019/202030,1372020/202128,3972021/202226,448

Pets: Animal Breeding

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to discourage pet owners from breeding animals with extreme conformation including brachycephalic dogs with welfare conditions.

Steve Double: The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 (the 2018 Regulations) were developed to help improve welfare standards across a range of activities involving animals that are licensed by local authorities, including the selling of animals as pets and dog breeding. Under the 2018 Regulations local authorities have powers to grant, refuse or revoke a licence. Licences must achieve and maintain statutory minimum animal welfare standards, linked to the welfare needs of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (the 2006 Act), and local authorities have the power to grant, refuse or revoke a licence. Defra publishes supporting guidance for the 2018 Regulations which is statutory, meaning that local authorities need to follow it. This aims to improve consistency in interpretation and application of the licensing regime across England. The guidance is available on GOV.UK, please see here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/animal-activities-licensing-guidance-for-local-authorities/. Under the 2018 Regulations, licensed breeders are prohibited from breeding dogs if it can be reasonably expected that on the basis of their genotype, phenotype or health, this would lead to welfare problems for the mother or the puppies which applies in the case of brachycephalic breeds. Both licensed and unlicensed animal breeders are required under the 2006 Act to protect the animals involved in breeding from harm and to provide for their welfare in line with good practice. A breach of these provisions may lead to imprisonment, a fine, or both. In the case of dogs and cats, the 2006 Act is backed up by statutory codes of practice which provide owners and keepers with general welfare information, including a specific section on how to protect them from pain, suffering, injury and disease. Both codes of practice recommend that owners seek the advice of a veterinary professional who can advise on the risks of inherited conditions and exaggerated features. The codes also reinforce the requirement for owners to take all reasonable steps to ensure that they are able to provide the care required during pregnancy. Additionally, Defra maintains a national communications campaign (Petfished) to raise awareness of issues associated with the supply of low-welfare pets. This includes providing clear signposting on where responsible breeders and rehoming centres can be found and encouraging prospective buyers to research the seller thoroughly before they visit and decide to purchase. The campaign provides a list of red flags for buyers to look out for when searching for a pet online and highlights the importance of ensuring that the dog’s physical appearance has minimal adverse impact to their physical well-being and welfare. More information can be found here: https://getyourpetsafely.campaign.gov.uk/. Lastly, Defra also works alongside members of the Brachycephalic Working Group to work to improve the health and welfare of brachycephalic dogs. Further information on the group and its work can be found here: http://www.ukbwg.org.uk/.

Meat and Slaughterhouses

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish statistics his Department holds on the (a) number of animals that are not stunned in slaughter, (b) number of animals that do not receive an effective stun and (c) amount of non-stun meat that is exported to the UK for the latest period for which that data is available.

Steve Double: Earlier this year, and alongside the Welsh Government, we commissioned the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to carry out a survey of slaughter methods in England and Wales. We will be publishing the survey results soon. The previous survey can be accessed at:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/778588/slaughter-method-survey-2018.pdf.The FSA publishes data on enforcement against animal welfare non-compliance in slaughterhouses in England and Wales. This includes the number of inaccurate or ineffective stuns recorded as serious or critical, and can be accessed at:https://data.gov.uk/dataset/92ee0c84-d680-400c-a560-94a3a1a100a6/animal-welfare-enforcement-non-compliance.The Department does not hold data on the amount of meat from animals slaughtered without stunning that is exported to the UK.

Cats and Dogs: Imports

Sir Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to give special dispensation to animal rescue charities for the commercial import of cats and dogs from (a) Belarus, (b) Poland, (c) Romania and (d) Ukraine where those charities guarantee full compliance with all health and legal requirements.

Victoria Prentis: The UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments have temporarily suspended the commercial import of dogs, cats and ferrets into Great Britain if they originate from or have been dispatched from Belarus, Poland, Romania or Ukraine, until 3 September 2022.We appreciate the impact that the temporary suspension will have on rescue organisations that operate in these countries. However, this measure is important to protect our biosecurity and the health of pets in this country.This decision has been taken because of the serious health risk to humans and animals in Great Britain from commercial cats, dogs and ferrets from Belarus, Poland, Romania or Ukraine that do not comply with UK health and documentation requirements.We understand the fluid situation at present due to the crisis and are aware that Romania, Belarus and Poland are currently experiencing high volumes of animal movements from Ukraine. Movements from these countries into Great Britain therefore present a higher risk at the current time due to the flow of animals from Ukraine.In particular, there is evidence to suggest that commercial consignments of pet animals from Ukraine are being moved into Poland, Romania and Belarus, including strays, rescue and abandoned animals.Unlike non-commercial pets accompanying Ukrainian refugees, these animals often have unknown history and disease status which increases the risk of disease spread.Our standards of biosecurity are among the highest in the world. The Government takes the importation of pets seriously and is committed to preserving our high standards of biosecurity. The movement of commercial pets from Belarus, Poland, Romania and Ukraine represents a clear and serious enough biosecurity risk at the current time that we therefore consider the suspension of these movements necessary to protect the health of people and pets in Great Britain.This risk has been exacerbated further by serious cases of non-compliance. There is a history of non-compliant movements of rescue animals into Great Britain from this region, which further increases the biosecurity risk.The Government appreciates the work of genuine rescue and rehoming organisations who work to ensure that unwanted and abandoned animals are given the opportunity to find a forever home while importantly complying with our animal health and welfare legislation. It is important to note that this is a temporary measure which will be reviewed in due course. We would encourage organisations which are temporarily unable to import rescue dogs, cats, and ferrets into Great Britain to provide help and assistance to animals in situ.

Countryside: Access

Mr Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for how many farmers and landowners in Derbyshire has a Rural Payment been reduced or withheld as a result of failure to comply with access and footpath requirements, in each of the last three years.

Victoria Prentis: Two rural payments claimants in Derbyshire breached the cross compliance Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) 7b Public Rights of Way rules in the last three scheme years. These were found in 2019. One received a reduction to payments, the other received a warning letter. In both cases, a right of way had been wilfully obstructed.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Pay

Pat McFadden: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) direct employees, (b) contractors, and (c) agency workers who work in their Department and relevant agencies and public bodies, receive a wage below that of either (i) the UK Real Living Wage outside of Greater London, or (ii) the London Living Wage inside of Greater London, as determined by the Living Wage Foundation.

Victoria Prentis: As of 6 July 2022, and taking into account relevant allowances such as London Weighting, the following organisations have direct employees (including apprentices) on wages lower than the Living Wage Foundation published rates. Where numbers in an organisation are below five individuals, this has been redacted at organisation level but included in overall totals. OrganisationLondonNationalTotalAnimal and Plant Health Agency000CEFAS000Consumer Council for Water000Defra1100Environment Agency000Forestry Commission000Joint Nature Conservancy Council000Kew80080Marine Management Organisation000Natural England09595Ofwat000Rural Payments Agency000Total91104195 For Natural England, a pay review is due with effect from 1 July which will uplift all employees above the Living Wage Foundation published rates. For the Consumer Council for Water, with effect from 11 July, due to a change in responsibilities, no employees will remain below the Living Wage Foundation threshold.  Wage information relating to contractors is not held. The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 are complied with by all organisations, which ensure parity of pay for agency workers with rates paid to employees. As pay and conditions are set between employee and employer, records are not held on Agencies and/or Contractors. The Crown Commercial Service’s frameworks set a minimum requirement of the current legislative amounts allowed by employers to pay, which all suppliers must adhere to when negotiating contracts with Government Departments. This government is committed to paying people a decent living wage, which is being addressed through the statutory National Living Wage. In April 2022, the National Living Wage increased to £9.50 per hour. By 2024, the Government has committed that the National Living Wage will reach 66% of median UK earnings.The Government will always award contracts on the basis of the best value for money for the taxpayer.

Sodium Hypochlorite: Shortages

Dame Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the shortage in the production of sodium hypochlorite on food production; and what steps he plans to take to alleviate any such impact.

Victoria Prentis: Sodium hypochlorite is a key input into the food system and is used as a cleaning product during the food production process. Along with other critical inputs to the food supply chain, Defra monitors the supply of sodium hypochlorite and stands ready to act if needed should an issue arise. To date, the reduced supply of sodium hypochlorite has been mitigated by industry through the various alternatives available depending on intended use. The day-to-day supply of sodium hypochlorite is a commercial matter for industry and they are well versed in responding to shortages without delay and the least amount of disruption to the public. Defra works closely with industry to monitor supply issues relating to both food products and critical inputs in the food system. Defra further works to encourage diverse and resilient supply chains to protect consumers and businesses.

Dairy Farming

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional subsidies to dairy farmers for the purposes of keeping costs of milk down in the context of the rising cost of living.

Victoria Prentis: Agricultural subsidies can distort the market and international trade and tend to provide short term, rather than long term solutions. The UK has obligations under World Trade Organization rules that affect agricultural subsidies and these are subject to financial limits. For this reason, we are moving to a new fairer system of support for agriculture in England through our future farming programme. This will include the Sustainable Farming Incentive and other environmental land management schemes, and grants and ongoing payments such as the Farming Investment Fund, the Future Farming Resilience Fund and the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway. We have a strong and resilient food production industry in the UK and believe that more sustainable and productive farm businesses will lead to stable prices, including for milk, and a positive impact on the cost of living. Defra and the Devolved Administrations continue to monitor and assess the impact of market developments across the UK, including the dairy sector through the UK Agricultural Market Monitoring Group (UKAMMG). The UKAMMG monitors the UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments, enabling it to provide forewarning of any atypical market movements. We have also recently increased our engagement with the industry to help gain a greater understanding of the impacts of the crisis in Ukraine and the situation across farming sectors.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Contracts

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many contracts that are worth (a) between £1 million and £3 million and (b) over £3 million their (i) Department and (ii) Department’s agencies and non-departmental public bodies (A) have agreed since 2010 and (B) are due to agree within the next 12 months; how much their Department has spent on monitoring each contract in each year since 2010; and how many officials have been working on that monitoring in each year since 2010.

Victoria Prentis: Details of Government contracts from 2016 above £10,000, and £25,000 in the wider public sector, are published on Contracts Finder. As Contracts Finder was implemented in 2016, not all records before this time are held centrally. Information on contracts with start dates within the next 12 months has been provided in the attached spreadsheet, with contracts between £1m and £3m, and £3m and over, on separate tabs. The Customer Lead Department column has been highlighted for ease of reference. There are 49 contracts between £1m and £3m and 92 contracts £3m and over with contract start dates within the next 12 months. Once contracts are let they are “owned” by the relevant business area Senior Responsible Officer and managed within the appropriate team. Therefore, we cannot confirm the cost or resource invested in managing the contracts.

Novel Foods: Research

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the (a) merits of providing funding for research and development on plant-based and cultivated meat alternatives and (b) potential effects of levels of such funding on the UK's international competitiveness in that market.

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of increasing investment into the UK alternative protein sector on (a) job creation and (b) regional economic growth.

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that the UK is able to compete effectively in the international alternative protein market.

Victoria Prentis: The Government has no formal plans to assess the merits of increasing investment into the UK alternative protein sector, or the merits of providing research and development on plant-based and cultivated meat alternatives. However, we do recognise that developing this sector could support UK growth and are making significant investment to unlock innovation and use our world-leading research across agriculture and food innovation to improve productivity, environmental sustainability and resilience, to move towards net zero emission farming systems. We have several funding programmes open to industry as well as our own farming and food science research. These funding streams address key areas such as soil systems and land management, regenerative agriculture, sustainable feed and pest management, automation, alternative proteins, and precision farming. As stated in the Government’s Food Strategy, through funding we will support progress on a wide range of issues, including alternative proteins and progress on gene editing. We will also work with the Food Standards Agency to develop dedicated guidance materials for approval of new alternative protein products while reviewing our novel food regulations. This will ensure they are transparent for innovators and investors, whilst maintaining world-leading consumer safety standards.

Home Office

Visas: Applications

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to increase the number of priority appointments available for priority service visa applicants.

Kevin Foster: UKVI closely monitor visa demand across all overseas locations and remain focussed on clearing the oldest applications as quickly as possible. We continue to review the availability of priority visa services and any changes will be published at Get a faster decision on your visa or settlement application: Applying from outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)Customers applying for priority visa services from within the UK to the UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service (UKVCAS) do not have to select a specific PV appointment, they can select any appointment at any site shown to them on the UKVCAS website

Asylum: Children

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 21 June 2022 to Question 11682 on Asylum: Children and with reference to the 355 children aged 11 to 17 who were housed by her Department between 22 February and 1 June 2022, how many local authorities did she direct to look after those children using her powers under section 72 of the Immigration Act 2016; how many local authorities refused to do so; and if she will publish those local authorities.

Kevin Foster: All local authorities with children’s services in the UK have been directed to participate in the NTS. This means they are required to accept transfers of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) into their care, providing crucial placements to these children.Only one local authority has challenged the direction to participate in the scheme. Given this matter is currently subject to legal challenge, I am unable to comment further at this time.

Members: Correspondence

Robert Largan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she will respond to the correspondence of 13 April 2022 from the hon. Member for High Peak, reference RL37352.

Kevin Foster: The Home Office responded to the correspondence on 12 July 2022

Members: Correspondence

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to respond to the email correspondence of 7 April, 23 May and 22 June 2022 from the office of the hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth regarding a visa application.

Kevin Foster: The Home Office responded to the correspondence on 12 July 2022.

Home Office: Legal Costs

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much their Department and its associated agencies spent on legal disputes in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.

Tom Pursglove: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Slavery

Christina Rees: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of eligible organisations under section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 have successfully complied with their obligation to report annually on the steps taken to prevent modern slavery in each year since that Act was introduced.

Amanda Solloway: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Home Office: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people held electronic purchasing cards that allowed them to make purchases against her Department's budget as of 31 March 2022.

Tom Pursglove: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Slavery

Christina Rees: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending the requirements of section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 to public sector organisations.

Amanda Solloway: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Visas: Ukraine

Ms Nusrat Ghani: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time staff employed by her Department (i) in the UK and (ii) overseas are assigned to dealing with outstanding Ukrainian refugee visa applications as of 12 July 2022.

Kevin Foster: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Migrants: Detainees

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many women who are detained under immigration powers have been given a notice of intent for removal to Rwanda as on 7 July 2022; and which immigration removal centres these women are detained in as on 7 July 2022.

Kevin Foster: A breakdown of individuals considered for relocation under the Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda is not currently available however we are working to bring that data in line with current reporting and hope to publish that information in the near future.The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of individuals being managed under inadmissibility rules and can be found online at How many people do we grant asylum or protection to? - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Refugees: Ukraine

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many refugees from Ukraine have been settled as part of the (a) Ukraine Family Scheme and (b) Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme in (i) Romford, (ii) Havering and (iii) the UK as of 6 July 2022.

Kevin Foster: Information on the number of visas granted under the Ukraine Family Scheme and the Homes for Ukraine Scheme can be found in our published data on the GOV.UK webpage: Ukraine Family Scheme and Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine) visa data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)Data on the Homes for Ukraine and Ukraine Family Scheme, broken down by local authority, can be found at:https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ukraine-sponsorship-scheme-visa-data-by-country-upper-and-lower-tier-local-authorityInformation requested which is not contained within this published data is not routinely captured.

Asylum: Rwanda

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the cost of the policy of transferring people who have applied for asylum in the UK to Rwanda in the financial year 2022-23.

Simon Baynes: As part of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership, the UK is investing an initial £120 million into the economic development and growth of Rwanda. Funding will also be provided to support the delivery of asylum operations, accommodation and integration. Every individual’s needs are different, but we anticipate the amount would be comparable to processing costs incurred in the UK. Funding will only be provided while an individual remains in Rwanda.

Asylum: Rwanda

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Monitoring Committee will set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda to enable the provision of an asylum partnership be established.

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she will ensure that the Monitoring Committee set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda, for the provision of an asylum partnership, is established before anyone is transferred under the scheme.

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what resources will be provided to the Monitoring Committee, set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership to enable it to fulfil its functions.

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the findings and recommendations of the Monitoring Committee, set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership, will be published.

Simon Baynes: An independent Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership will monitor the entire relocation process and compliance with assurances in the Memorandum of Understanding, including the processing of asylum claims and provision of support in Rwanda.The Monitoring Committee will agree an annual, resourced monitoring plan with the Joint Committee. The terms of reference and membership of the Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership are in the process of being developed and will set out how the Monitoring Committee will report its findings. The Monitoring Committee is due to become established over the next few weeks. More details on this will be set out in due course.

Asylum: Rwanda

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help ensure that her policy of transferring people with asylum applications to Rwanda does not result in the separation of families.

Simon Baynes: With the exception of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, any individual who has arrived in the UK through dangerous, illegal and unnecessary methods since 1 January 2022 may be considered for relocation to Rwanda. Decisions will be taken on a case-by-case basis, and nobody will be relocated if it is unsafe or inappropriate for them.Everyone considered for relocation will be screened and have access to legal advice.We have published our Inadmissibility guidance on GOV.UK to make clearer provisions for removals to a safe third country under a model like the MEDP Partnership.Those with family links in the UK, who want to be considered for entry to the UK, should seek to do so via safe and legal routes. Nobody needs to put their lives into the hands of criminal people smuggling gangs by making dangerous and irregular journeys. Individuals with family in the UK may still be relocated to Rwanda subject to a detailed consideration of their Article 8 rights under the Human Rights Act.

Asylum: Rwanda

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Monitoring Committee referred to in paragraph 15 of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the Republic of Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership arrangement, when that Monitoring Committee will be established.

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Monitoring Committee referred to in paragraph 15 of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the Republic of Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership arrangement, what resources will be provided to that Monitoring Committee to enable it to fulfil its functions.

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Monitoring Committee referred to in paragraph 15 of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the Republic of Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership arrangement, whether the findings and recommendations of that Monitoring Committee will be published.

Simon Baynes: An independent Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership will monitor the entire relocation process and compliance with assurances in the Memorandum of Understanding, including the processing of asylum claims and provision of support in Rwanda.The terms of reference and membership of the Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership are in the process of being developed. The Monitoring Committee is due to become established over the next few weeks. More details on this will be set out in due course.

Asylum: Rwanda

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of whether her policy of transferring asylum applications to Rwanda will result in the separation of families.

Simon Baynes: With the exception of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, any individual who has arrived in the UK through dangerous, illegal and unnecessary methods since 1 January 2022 may be considered for relocation to Rwanda. Decisions will be taken on a case-by-case basis, and nobody will be relocated if it is unsafe or inappropriate for them.Everyone considered for relocation will be screened and have access to legal advice.We have published our Inadmissibility guidance on GOV.UK to make clearer provisions for removals to a safe third country under a model like the MEDP Partnership.Those with family links in the UK, who want to be considered for entry to the UK, should seek to do so via safe and legal routes. Nobody needs to put their lives into the hands of criminal people smuggling gangs by making dangerous and irregular journeys. People with family in the UK may still be relocated to Rwanda subject to a detailed consideration of their Article 8 rights under the Human Rights Act.

Asylum: Rwanda

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the findings and recommendations of the Monitoring Committee set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership will be made publicly available.

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what resources will be provided to the Monitoring Committee set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership to enable it to fulfil its functions.

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will ensure that the Monitoring Committee set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership is established before anyone is transferred under that scheme.

Simon Baynes: An independent Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership will monitor the entire relocation process and compliance with assurances in the Memorandum of Understanding, including the processing of asylum claims and provision of support in Rwanda.The Monitoring Committee will agree an annual, resourced monitoring plan with the Joint Committee. The terms of reference and membership of the Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership are in the process of being developed and will set out how the Monitoring Committee will report its findings.The Monitoring Committee is due to become established over the next few weeks. More details on this will be set out in due course.

UK Border Force: Labour Turnover

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 16th June 2022 to Question 15307, on UK Border Force: Recruitment, how many members of staff (a) Border Force has recruited and (b) have left Border Force, in 2022.

Stephen McPartland: Border Force has increased its workforce by 3% over 2020/2021 financial year to over 9,300 staff, with a large proportion of those staff trained and deployed to front line operations.For security reasons, we do not give out figures of how many staff are working at a given time.Border Force keeps its resourcing and staffing numbers under constant review in light of passenger arrival data provided by carriers and port operator.Border Force has continued to build staffing levels during 2021/2022 and recruitment will continue throughout 2022.

Asylum: Rwanda

Paula Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Monitoring Committee set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership will be established.

Paula Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will ensure that the Monitoring Committee set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership is established before anyone is transferred under the scheme.

Paula Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what resources will be provided to the Monitoring Committee set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership to enable it to fulfil its functions.

Paula Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the findings and recommendations of the Monitoring Committee set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership will be published.

Simon Baynes: An independent Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership will monitor the entire relocation process and compliance with assurances in the Memorandum of Understanding, including the processing of asylum claims and provision of support in Rwanda.The terms of reference and membership of the Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership are in the process of being developed. The Monitoring Committee is due to become established over the next few weeks. More details on this will be set out in due course.

Asylum: Rwanda

Paula Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that her policy of transferring asylum applications to Rwanda does not result in the separation of families.

Simon Baynes: With the exception of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, any individual who has arrived in the UK through dangerous, illegal and unnecessary methods since 1 January 2022 may be considered for relocation to Rwanda. Decisions will be taken on a case-by-case basis, and nobody will be relocated if it is unsafe or inappropriate for them.Everyone considered for relocation will be screened and have access to legal advice.We have published our Inadmissibility guidance on GOV.UK to make clearer provisions for removals to a safe third country under a model like the MEDP Partnership.Those with family links in the UK, who want to be considered for entry to the UK, should seek to do so via safe and legal routes. Nobody needs to put their lives into the hands of criminal people smuggling gangs by making dangerous and irregular journeys. People with family in the UK may still be relocated to Rwanda subject to a detailed consideration of their Article 8 rights under the Human Rights Act.

Asylum: Rwanda

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that her policy of transferring people with asylum applications to Rwanda does not result in the separation of families.

Simon Baynes: With the exception of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, any individual who has arrived in the UK through dangerous, illegal and unnecessary methods since 1 January 2022 may be considered for relocation to Rwanda. Decisions will be taken on a case-by-case basis, and nobody will be relocated if it is unsafe or inappropriate for them.Everyone considered for relocation will be screened and have access to legal advice.We have published our Inadmissibility guidance on GOV.UK to make clearer provisions for removals to a safe third country under a model like the MEDP Partnership.Those with family links in the UK, who want to be considered for entry to the UK, should seek to do so via safe and legal routes. Nobody needs to put their lives into the hands of criminal people smuggling gangs by making dangerous and irregular journeys. Individuals with family in the UK may still be relocated to Rwanda subject to a detailed consideration of their Article 8 rights under the Human Rights Act.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Refugees: Ukraine

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what comparative assessment he has made of the adequacy financial support available for Ukrainian refugees arriving through the (a) Ukraine Family Scheme and (b) Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Eddie Hughes: Our priority was to get Ukrainians to safety as quickly as possible. Currently the schemes are only available to people fleeing conflict in Ukraine and is not open to people already in the UK The Ukraine Family Scheme is intended as a light touch, temporary, extension to the existing family routes which existed before the Ukraine conflict, where public services are funded out of council budgets and the same principle is applied here. Homes for Ukraine on the other hand is a unique scheme that has been set up specifically to support those escaping the conflict in Ukraine who are not able to rely on family support. Councils receive funding of £10,500 for each arrival to meet the additional costs of checks and services.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Legal Costs

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much their Department and its associated agencies spent on legal disputes in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.

Eddie Hughes: The department only holds data on the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, the Planning Inspectorate and Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. The below is spend on litigation, employment and commercial cases managed for the department by the Government Legal Department (GLD).Sum of Total invoiced (INC VAT)Year billed   Trimmed Client codeClient description202020212022 (to 30  th June)TotalMHCLG/DLUHCMHCLG & DLUHC£1,334,235£1,584,449£1,124,398£4,043,081PINSPLANNING INSPECTORATE£1,583,987£1,538,819£700,167£3,822,973QECCTHE Q.E.II CONFERENCE CENTRE£4,868£1,439£1,572£7,878 Data is from 1/1/2020 to 30/6/2022 inclusiveData extracted from GLD’s electronic systems as at 8/7/2022Data is shown inclusive of VATData provided is based upon calendar year

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many people held electronic purchasing cards that allowed them to make purchases against his Department's budget as of 31 March 2022.

Eddie Hughes: As of 31 March 2022, there were 17 live Government Procurement Card accounts that could be used to make purchases against the Department of Levelling up, Housing and Communities budget.

Housing Associations: Right to Buy Scheme

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Government's announcement of 9 June 2022, what his planned timetable is for extending the right to buy to housing association tenants.

Mr Marcus Jones: This Government is committed to the Right to Buy, which has helped nearly two million social housing tenants to realise their dream of home ownership. The Prime Minister announced on 9 June 2022 the intention to extend the Right to Buy to housing association tenants.We want the scheme to work effectively for tenants and housing associations and will be working with housing associations on the scheme design. We will announce more details in due course, including on the planned timetable.

Derelict Land: Urban Areas

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring urban brownfield land to be converted into new greenfield land in circumstances where local construction takes place on green belt land.

Mr Marcus Jones: This Government is committed to making the most of brownfield land in line with our policies in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which sets out that planning policies and decisions should give substantial weight to the value of using suitable brownfield land within settlements. Redeveloping brownfield sites in urban areas makes best use of existing services and infrastructure, promotes sustainable forms of transport and helps remediate contaminated sites. It is right we should make the most of such sites to minimise the need for development of greenfield land and the countryside.Government attaches great importance to Green Belt and local planning policies and decisions should enhance and protect Green Belt land. Most Green Belt is rural greenfield land, often containing valuable biodiversity, good farming soils, and attractive landscape.  In Green Belt as elsewhere, the NPPF expects local authorities to recognise the importance of the natural environment and the character and beauty of the countryside, and to improve access for sport and recreation. If a local authority cannot avoid loss of Green Belt, it is expected to offset the loss of that land by environmental and access improvements in areas remaining Green Belt.The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill sets out planning measures that will support regeneration by enabling more effective use of land, improving land value capture and supporting infrastructure delivery. Reforms, including clarification on the use of compulsory purchase, will make it easier to assemble brownfield land ready for development, whilst locally led Development Corporations will have planning powers to support regeneration, including provision of new green space and other green infrastructure.

Local Plans

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to support local planning authorities to consider the location of (a) infrastructure, (b) transport routes, (c) economic areas and (d) housing areas which would be built beyond the time period of their local plans.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he is taking steps to ensure that long-term planning considerations are taken into account when producing local plans.

Mr Marcus Jones: At present, local planning authorities are required to produce strategic policies that look ahead over a minimum 15 year period from adoption, to anticipate and respond to long-term requirements and opportunities, such as those arising from major improvements in infrastructure. Where larger scale developments such as new settlements or significant extensions to existing villages and towns form part of the strategy for the area, policies should be set within a vision that looks further ahead (at least 30 years), to take into account the likely timescale for delivery of different forms of development including supporting infrastructure.   The Planning Advisory Service, which is part of the Local Government Association, is available to provide advice to local planning authorities about any aspect of plan making, including providing support on the preparation of policies that may look beyond plan periods. Local planning authorities may also engage with the Planning Inspectorate during the plan preparation process to get advice on particular matters.Under the Government's proposed planning reforms, local authorities will continue to be required to plan for different types of development over a number of years in order to provide certainty to the public and other key stakeholders.

Planning Permission: Reform

Chris Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of planning reforms on facilitating access to health and social care services in high street and community settings.

Mr Marcus Jones: The planning system has an important role in making sure communities have access to the infrastructure and services they need - including health and social care.The planning changes, introduced through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, will enhance this role and help to ensure new development is accompanied by the right infrastructure, delivered at the right time.The new single, simplified Infrastructure Levy will aim to capture more land value uplift than the current developer contribution regime, ensuring big developers contribute more and allowing local authorities to use the proceeds for providing infrastructure such as GPs, hospitals, and social care facilities. New infrastructure delivery strategies will also make sure the infrastructure delivered is tailored and targeted towards the needs specific to local areas.

Right to Buy Scheme: Almshouses

Siobhain McDonagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether almshouse charities will continue to be exempt from the Right to Buy as part of the review on extending that policy to housing association tenants.

Mr Marcus Jones: This Government is committed to the Right to Buy, which has helped nearly two million social housing tenants to realise their dream of home ownership. The Prime Minister announced on 9 June 2022 the intention to extend the Right to Buy to housing association tenants.We will be working closely with the housing association sector as we develop the new scheme, including on the homes which will be eligible for sale. Under the 2015 voluntary agreement with housing associations, certain types of homes including alms houses and housing cooperatives were excluded from the Voluntary Right to Buy scheme and consideration will be given to this and other possible exemptions under a forthcoming scheme.More details will be announced in due course.

Regional Planning and Development: Public Appointments

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 11 July 2022 to Question 31091 on Regional Planning and Development: Public Appointments, when the process of recruitment for the positions of Levelling Up Directors will be completed.

Lia Nici: As stated in my answer to Question UIN 31091 on 11 July 2022, the department is in the process of recruitment and more details will be available in due course.

Scotland Office

Scotland Office: Aviation

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much has their Office spent on air travel for (a) Ministers and (b) staff in each year between 2020-22.

Mr Alister Jack: The Scotland Office spend on air travel for (a) Ministers and (b) staff in each year between 2020-22 is shown below:  2019-202020-212021-22Ministers£20,238£921£8,664Staff£66,766£11,231£40,894

Cabinet Office

Ministers: Redundancy Pay

Ruth Jones: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many former Ministers will be entitled to severance pay since 6 June 2022.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: Under the provisions of the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991, a former eligible minister only becomes entitled to a severance payment in the event that they are not appointed to another relevant office within three weeks of stepping down. Currently, no minister who has left office since 6 June 2022 is entitled to a severance payment.

Ministers: Redundancy Pay

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it his policy to abolish ministerial severance payments.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The provision of severance payments for those who leave ministerial office is set out in the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991. The Government has no current plans to abolish ministerial severance payments.

Civil Servants: Workplace Pensions

Dave Doogan: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people receiving the Civil Service Pension who had a reduction in their pension then received (a) an increased pension and (b) a lump sum payment following a further adjustment to their Guaranteed Minimum Pension since 2016.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The requested information is not available. The outcome of the Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) exercise was a single adjustment to a member’s pension. In a small number of cases a member’s pension may have been adjusted for other reasons and then subsequently changed again as a result of the GMP exercise.

Cabinet Office: Legal Costs

Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much their Department and its associated agencies spent on legal disputes in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.

Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg: The Department is unable to provide spend on legal disputes, as this is not recorded separately from wider legal expenditure.

Efficiencies and Value for Money Committee

Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, who chairs the Domestic and Economic (Efficiency and Value for Money) Committee as of 12 July 2022.

Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, who the members of the Efficiency and Value for Money Cabinet Committee are as of 12 July 2022.

Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he chairs the Domestic and Economic (Efficiency and Value for Money) Committee.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The Chancellor of the Exchequer chairs the Domestic and Economic (Efficiency and Value for Money) Committee. The standing members of the Domestic and Economic (Efficiency and Value for Money) Committee, as of 12 July 2022, are as follows:Chancellor of the Exchequer (Chair)Chancellor of the Duchy of LancasterChief Secretary to the Treasury (co-Deputy Chair)Minister of State (Brexit Opportunities & Government Efficiency) (co-Deputy Chair)Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster GeneralMinister without Portfolio

Efficiencies and Value for Money Committee

Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on what dates the Domestic and Economic (Efficiency and Value for Money) Committee has met.

Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Domestic and Economic (Efficiency and Value for Money) Committee is taking to ensure (a) Government efficiency and (b) value for money.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees, and how often they have met, is not normally shared publicly.

Cabinet Office: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people held electronic purchasing cards that allowed them to make purchases against the budgets of (a) his Department and (b) 10 Downing Street as of 31 March 2022.

Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg: As of 31 March 2022, the Department had 283 cardholders. For management and staffing purposes the Prime Minister’s Office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office. It is not possible to provide a separate figure.

Infected Blood Inquiry

Tommy Sheppard: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the report by Sir Robert Francis QC entitled, Compensation and Redress for the Victims of Infected Blood, Recommendations for a Framework, what steps his Department is taking to implement paragraph 9.136, which recommends that arrangements should be made immediately for an interim lump sum payment of compensation to be made to every eligible living infected person.

Michael Ellis: I refer the Hon. member to the answer given to PQ 16932 on 20 June.

Cabinet Office: Staff

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 12 July to Question 29976, for what reason his Department made payments of (a) £600 to the Active Bystander Training Company on 11 April 2022 and (b) £1,140 to the Plain English Campaign on 19 April 2022.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: Purchases questioned were made using the Department’s Electronic Purchasing Card Solution (ePCS), which is our preferred method for low value expenditure. The requested items were purchased for: Training for 40 staff on how to challenge unacceptable behaviour, with the aim of improving gender equality.Training for new team members on how to draft high quality responses to public and ministerial correspondence.

Treasury

Foster Care: Allowances

Sir Christopher Chope: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when the level of income-tax exemption for foster carers was last revised in respect of care allowances; and if he will make a new adjustment to take account of the rising level of foster care allowances.

Lucy Frazer: Qualifying Care Relief (QCR) is a tax relief available to support foster carers, in addition to some other carers. QCR was first introduced as Foster Care Relief in 2003-04. This allowance is £10,000 per household per year, plus £250 per week per adult or child aged 11 or over (£200 for a child under 11). It is important to consider that the QCR operates in addition to other reliefs and allowances. Foster carers are also entitled to the Personal Allowance, which may be available to cover any foster care income above the QCR allowance. The Government has increased the Personal Allowance (PA) by over 40 per cent in real terms since 2010, ensuring some of the lowest earners do not pay income tax. The PA is the highest basic personal tax allowance of all countries in the G20, and it remains one of the most generous internationally. The Government keeps all aspects of the tax system under review.

Revenue and Customs: Annual Reports

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when HMRC plans to publish its annual report and accounts for the financial year 2022-23.

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many compliance checks the HMRC Taxpayer Protection Taskforce has carried out as of July 2022.

Lucy Frazer: HMRC designed the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), The Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) and the Eat Out To Help Out Scheme (EOTHO) to prevent fraud and error, both in the eligibility criteria and the claim process itself whilst making sure the grant payments reached claimants as quickly as possible. HMRC also put in place a series of checks on claims before they were paid, so they blocked those that were highly indicative of criminal activity. Anyone who keeps grant money despite knowing they were not entitled to it, faces having to repay up to double the amount they received, plus interest and potentially criminal prosecution. At Spring Budget 2021 the Government announced a £100m investment into the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce. The taskforce was established to extend HMRC’s work to tackle fraud and error in the COVID support schemes that they administered (CJRS, SEISS and EOTHO). The taskforce does not address compliance risks in schemes that have been administered outside HMRC. Up to the end of March 2021, over 12,000 compliance checks had been carried out, this was prior to the formation of the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce. Further information on the number of compliance checks carried out and taskforce performance for 21/22 is covered in HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts (AR&A) for 21/22 and will be published before recess. HMRC expects to publish its 2022-23 Annual Report & Accounts in Summer 2023.

Natwest Group: Child Trust Fund

Sir Greg Knight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will hold discussions with representatives of NatWest Group on ensuring that people are able to access their recently matured Child Trust Fund accounts; and if he will make a statement.

Sir Greg Knight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to ensure NatWest Group's compliance with current legislation in the administration of customers' Child Trust Fund accounts.

Richard Fuller: Treasury ministers and officials engage with stakeholders on a variety of issues. However, how firms service their financial products is a commercial decision for firms in which the Government does not seek to intervene. Nonetheless, the Government is committed to reuniting all young adults with their Child Trust Funds (CTFs) and recognises the importance of ensuring that young adults can benefit from these funds as they reach adulthood. The Child Trust Fund Regulations do not require firms to provide access to money held in these accounts within a defined period of time upon maturity. However, UK banks’ and building societies’ treatment of their customers is governed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in its Principles for Businesses. This includes a general requirement for firms to provide a prompt, efficient and fair service to all of their customers. Any dispute arising between a bank and its customers is usually best resolved by the parties involved. I encourage all those affected to contact their bank’s customer complaints department. The Financial Conduct Authority’s rules require firms to properly investigate all complaints and, through ongoing supervision, it continues to monitor firms complaint handling processes. If customers remain unhappy with their bank’s response, they will be eligible to apply to have a further review conducted by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) which provides a free, independent dispute resolution service for customers.

Bank Services: Charities

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the ability of charities to obtain bank accounts.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he is taking steps to increase the ability of charities to obtain bank accounts.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will conduct a review of the ability of charities to obtain bank accounts without significant delay.

Richard Fuller: Decisions concerning the provision and pricing of products, including account charges, are commercial decisions for banks. Therefore, while the Government recognises and values the important role of the charitable sector, it would be inappropriate for it to intervene in these decisions. However, the Treasury recognises the challenges some charitable organisations have been facing. That's why it hosted a roundtable event on 22 March, bringing together lenders and charity representatives to discuss this important issue. This allowed lenders to hear first-hand the problems many charities have experienced, as well as to set out the products they offer, and what charities need to consider in relation to banking requirements. Following the meeting, UK Finance committed to working with banks and charity representatives to produce guidance aimed at helping charities access and understand banking requirements. In the meantime, charities may find it useful to explore the Business Current Account finder tool developed by UK Finance. This was designed to help businesses compare the full range of available accounts, including fees charged by providers, to find products that best suit their needs. It can be found online at: https://www.betterbusinessfinance.co.uk/account-opening.

Climate Change

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking to mitigate against climate change.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to invest in infrastructure to mitigate against climate change.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take fiscal steps to support behaviour that mitigates against climate change.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the scale of investment needed to (a) prevent drought and (b) maintain adequate irrigation.

Alan Mak: The Government is fully committed to achieving its net zero emissions targets under the Climate Change Act. The Net Zero Strategy sets out the Government’s plans to meet these targets, including on empowering the public and business to make green choices.  The Budget and Spending Review 2021 confirmed that since March 2021 the Government has committed a total of £30bn of domestic investment for the green industrial revolution. Alongside investment in green infrastructure set out in Spending Review 2021, the Government has also established the UK Infrastructure Bank with £22 billion of financial capacity to invest in infrastructure to help tackle climate change and to support regional and local economic growth across the UK. Following the publication of the UK’s Third Climate Change Risk Assessment earlier this year, the Government is now developing the third National Adaptation Programme, to be laid in Parliament in 2023, which will address the risks facing the UK from climate change. This work is led by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs in consultation with relevant departments, including HM Treasury.

Fuels: Excise Duties and VAT

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of (a) lowering the rate of VAT on motor fuel for low paid workers and (b) abolishing fuel duty.

Michelle Donelan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of (a) reducing fuel duty and (b) cutting the rate of VAT on petrol and diesel.

Alan Mak: The temporary 5p cut to duty on petrol and diesel represents a £2.4 billion tax cut in 2022-23, to help consumers with high fuel prices. VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. It would cost over £6 billion to cut VAT on road fuel from 20% to 5%. The Government keeps all taxes under review.

Treasury: Public Consultation

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) consultations and (b) calls for evidence issued by his Department are closed but have not been responded to as on 12 July 2022.

Alan Mak: All Government consultations and calls for evidence are published on gov.uk, which also provides an update on whether Government has responded to these. In this Parliament, we have identified 15 calls for evidence or consultations which are closed, but which Government has not yet responded to.

Treasury: Legal Costs

Jon Trickett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much their Department and its associated agencies spent on legal disputes in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.

Alan Mak: HMT receives its legal services from the Government Legal Department (GLD) and external contractors. We do not disaggregate the costs of disputes as opposed to other legal advice. The amount we pay for the GLD is shown in the table below, and legal expenses for external consultants can be found here as part of HMT’s transparency reporting with links shown below. Contract finder - Contracts Finder - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Over £25k transparency reporting - HM Treasury spend over £25,000 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Calendar YearTotal GLD Expenditure2020£9,244,1622021£10,073,2352022 (Jan-May)£2,531,686

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Leisure: Facilities

Nicola Richards: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the financial viability of (a) swimming pools and (b) other public leisure facilities.

Nigel Huddleston: We recognise the importance of ensuring public access to leisure facilities, including swimming pools, which are great spaces for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy, and which play an important role within communities.The ongoing responsibility of providing access to public leisure facilities lies at Local Authority level, and the government continues to encourage Local Authorities to invest in leisure facilities.Sport England has invested £9,564,322 in swimming and diving projects since April 2019, which includes £6,260,502 to Swim England. This is in addition to the £100 million National Leisure Recovery Fund which supported the reopening of local authority swimming pools throughout the country after the pandemic.

Equity Actors' Union

Esther McVey: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has received representations on the scope of activities being undertaken by Equity.

Esther McVey: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with members of Equity on the payment of repeat fees and the retention of those fees by that union.

Esther McVey: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with representatives of Equity on the standards of services it provides to its members.

Nigel Huddleston: DCMS has regular contact with Equity, and with other trade unions representing the arts and culture sector. Equity also sat on the Department’s Events and Entertainment Working Group.In May this year the Minister for Arts met representatives from Equity to discuss aspects of the Universal Credit system and their impact on Equity members. Lord Parkinson also attended a freelancers roundtable in June organised by the Cultural Learning Alliance at which Equity was present.

Youth Investment Fund: County Durham

Paul Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what projects were supported by the first round of the Youth Investment Fund in County Durham and Darlington.

Nigel Huddleston: Twelve projects supporting young people in County Durham and Darlington were awarded funding from Phase One of the Youth Investment Fund. The funding has enabled local youth providers to invest in small-scale capital projects including outdoor/activity equipment, IT/Tech, a minibus, and small redevelopments that expand the reach, number and range of services they currently offer.Phase One of the Youth Investment Fund, administered by BBC Children in Need, has delivered £12 million of funding this year to over 400 local youth organisations in levelling up priority areas in England. The full list of recipients can be found here.Phase Two of the Youth Investment Fund is expected to open in summer 2022.

Holiday Accommodation: Rural Areas

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of providing funding for clow-cost, permanent holiday accommodation in rural areas to reduce demand for short term holiday lets.

Nigel Huddleston: The Government committed, in the Tourism Recovery Plan published in June last year, to consult on a possible Short Term Accommodation Registration Scheme in England. A call for evidence, as the first stage of that consultation process, was published on 29 June and runs until 21 September.We want to hear from a wide range of stakeholders in order to build a much-needed evidence base on these issues and enable us to develop proportionate policy responses. We ideally want to strike a balance between the benefits of the sharing economy and the concerns of the impacts on some communities, alongside ensuring consistency in quality among the range of different tourism accommodation providers.

Sports: Disclosure of Information

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what systems her Department has in place to support whistle-blowers who raise allegations of (a) racism and (b) other forms of discrimination (i) within and (ii) against sports governing bodies.

Nigel Huddleston: The Government is clear there is no room for racism or any type of discrimination in sport or wider society. National Governing Bodies (NGBs) are responsible for the governance of their sports. We are working closely with our arm’s length bodies, UK Sport and Sport England, and NGBs themselves to ensure discrimination is tackled effectively.UK Sport and Sport England’s Code for Sport Governance sets out the levels of transparency, accountability and integrity that are required from those organisations in receipt of public funding, this includes having appropriate policies in place. UK Sport provides guidance for sports on whistleblowing and confidential disclosure.UK Sport launched a new independent disclosure and complaints service pilot called Sport Integrity in May 2022. The pilot will assist athletes, athlete support personnel and NGB staff, within Olympic and Paralympic high-performance programmes, to uphold the highest standards of conduct in their sports. It will provide an independent and confidential reporting line and an independent investigation process to deal with relevant allegations of bullying, harassment, discrimination, or abuse, and to allow sports to take the appropriate disciplinary action as necessary. These services will be made available free of charge to funded NGBs.In June 2021, UK Sport also announced their commitment to enhancing integrity across sport and will be working closely with all the Sports Councils to ensure that this occurs beyond high performance sport.

Countryside: Access

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of trends in the levels of youth hostels in rural areas on young peoples' access to the natural environment.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the level of demand for (a) caravan or (b) camping holidays in England; and if she will take steps to encourage people to take up those forms of tourism.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the contribution of urban farms to tourism.

Nigel Huddleston: The Youth Hostel Association (YHA) helped to fund the Green Recovery Challenge Fund (GRCF), which was a multi-partner consortium project aiming to connect young people to nature. Generation Green, was a project funded by the GRCF, capitalised on the combined reach of the coalition partners of more than two million young people. It has provided more than 100,000 progressive opportunities throughout the project to connect young people to nature. Some of the partners include The Scout Association, The Guide Association, Outward Bound Trust, Field Studies Council and the National Park Authorities. The project prioritised young people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups, disadvantaged backgrounds and coastal communities.According to this report from VisitBritain 10% of all domestic overnight stays in England in 2019 were accommodated in caravans or camping sites. This increases to 20% when only considering domestic overnight holidays (excluding business travel or visiting friends and relatives) - this equated to 9.3m trips in 2019.The Tourism Recovery Plan (TRP), published in June 2021, sets out how we will assist and accelerate the tourism sector’s recovery from COVID-19. The TRP sets out ambitious and stretching targets to recover inbound visitor numbers and spend, and recover domestic overnight trip volume and spend to 2019 levels, at least a year faster than independent forecasts predict.VisitBritain and VisitEngland’s latest international and domestic campaigns aim to drive demand back to Britain and encourage people to holiday at home. These messages will benefit the whole visitor economy, including rural tourism, in every region.

Cars: Hire Services

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the cost of hiring a car on holiday makers in the UK.

Nigel Huddleston: The Government does not generally intervene in how businesses choose to conduct their activities or offer their products and services, which is essentially a commercial matter. Business should be free to compete on matters such as quality, service and product pricing.Provided consumers are not misled and able to make informed decisions, companies offering goods and services are free to offer their products and services under conditions of their choosing and consumers are able to choose those products and services or shop elsewhere for products and services which meet their requirements.The Government is committed to supporting the tourism industry which is why we published the Tourism Recovery Plan in June 2021. It sets out the role of the government in assisting and accelerating the tourism sector’s recovery from COVID-19. The TRP sets out our ambitious and stretching targets to recover inbound visitor numbers and spend, and recover domestic overnight trip volume and spend, to 2019 levels at least a year faster than independent forecasts predict.

Hostels: Finance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will increase tourism-associated funding for youth hostels.

Nigel Huddleston: I am pleased that the Youth Hostel Association (YHA) received support from the Culture Recovery Fund and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’ Green Recovery Fund to continue the organisation's work within communities.The Tourism Recovery Plan (TRP), published in June 2021, sets out how we will assist and accelerate the tourism sector’s recovery from COVID-19. The TRP sets out ambitious and stretching targets to recover inbound visitor numbers and spend, and recover domestic overnight trip volume and spend to 2019 levels, at least a year faster than independent forecasts predict.

Holidays: Carbon Emissions

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to help reduce the carbon footprint of holidays in the UK.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will provide (a) guidance and (b) a toolkit to help families measure their carbon use during a holiday.

Nigel Huddleston: The Tourism Recovery Plan sets out a comprehensive framework for rebuilding the sector. In the long term, the plan aims to build back better, with a more sustainable, inclusive, innovative, data-driven, productive and resilient industry, where the benefits of tourism are shared across every nation and region.The Government has committed to develop a Sustainable Tourism Plan to put the UK at the forefront of the global discussion on sustainable travel. We have recently set up a subgroup of the Tourism Industry Council on Sustainability to take this work forward, working with industry to identify achievable ways for the sector to grow back greener.The Government and VisitBritain is also pursuing the development of a new domestic rail tourism product to accelerate the recovery of domestic tourism. Introducing an offer for domestic tourists will encourage sustainable domestic holiday travel and reduce tourism’s reliance on cars.VisitBritain is working with the tourism sector to celebrate best practice and to coordinate an industry response that promotes the UK as a leader in sustainable tourism. One of the focuses is to build a better regional and seasonal spread, encouraging visitors to move slower, explore more widely, stay for longer, and spend more in local communities. VisitBritain has been building a global sustainable tourism content ‘hub’ on visitbritain.com with itineraries and experiences for tourists to enjoy a sustainable stay in Britain.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Legal Costs

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much their Department and its associated agencies spent on legal disputes in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.

Matt Warman: The total amount that DCMS spent on litigation services provided by the Government Legal Department and any external law firms and Counsel representing the department was:(a) £198,557.00 (inc VAT) in 2020(b) £226,283.10 (inc VAT) in 2021(c) £197,729.56 (inc VAT) in 2022 (as at 30 June 2022)These figures do not include the cost of Government Legal Department advice in relation to employment matters or the cost of advice by external firms or Counsel in relation to matters which did not result in litigation.DCMS has one associated agency, Building Digital UK (BDUK). BDUK has not been involved in any litigation since it was established as an executive agency on 1 April 2022 - before that time any costs would have been included in the figures set out above. The organisation does seek legal advice on various matters including to support internal appeals on subsidy control, commercial matters, and compliance cases during the regular course of business.

Digital Technology and Internet: Disadvantaged

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the impact that (a) digital exclusion and (b) inability to afford a sufficient, private and secure internet connection to meet essential needs have on the poverty premium.

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle (a) digital exclusion and (b) inability to afford a sufficient, private and secure internet connection to meet essential needs.

Damian Collins: We recognise that being digitally excluded makes it more difficult for people to make use of essential services. DCMS is responsible for coordinating HMG digital inclusion policy, and aims to ensure that people across the country from all backgrounds have a base level of digital skills, as well as internet access - two of the most fundamental aspects of digital exclusion.DfE’s Digital Entitlement allows for adults with no or low digital skills (below level 1) to study for new Essential Digital Skills Qualifications (EDSQs) for free. Out of work claimants can be mandated as part of their Claimant Commitment to basic foundation digital skills provision where the work coach considers this will progress the claimants labour market journey.On Monday 27 June, 2022, the DCMS Secretary of State met leaders of the UK’s major fixed broadband, landline and mobile operators and agreed a set of public commitments to support households with their connectivity costs.Since January 2021, DCMS has worked with operators to improve the number and quality of social tariffs in the market. As a result of our engagement, a range of affordable, social tariffs are now available in 99% of the UK. BT, Virgin Media O2, Sky, Vodafone and other providers offer voice, mobile and broadband social tariffs starting at £10 per month for households in receipt of Universal Credit and other means tested benefits.Public libraries also play an important role in supporting digital inclusion. Around 2,900 public libraries in England provide a trusted network of accessible locations with staff, volunteers, free wifi, public PCs, and assisted digital access to a wide range of digital services. Library staff and volunteers have been trained in digital skills so that they can provide library users with in-person support in using digital applications and services.